Which to use
“joke” and “joy” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,742
- “joke” frequency rank
- #15,919
- “joy” frequency rank
- 33661
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | joke | joy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Blague, farce. | Joie, allégresse. |
Where the eye mixes joke and joy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: joke vs joy
A purely visual mix-up. joke (\dʒok\) and joy (\ˈdʒɔɪ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
joke is recorded at frequency rank #17,742, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʒok\. joy is at rank #15,919, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdʒɔɪ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 33661, this pair ranks #289,132 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of joke vs joy
Shared letters: jo. Private to "joke": ek. Private to "joy": y.
"joke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "joy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- joke ← jjoke · jkoe · joek · jokke · ojke
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "joke" for "joy" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "joke" or "joy" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "joke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "joy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #289,132 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "joke" and "joy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "joke vs jor". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #289,132 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.