jokervsjouesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“joker” and “joues” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,824
“joker” frequency rank
#5,471
“joues” frequency rank
19295
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature joker joues
Definition Carte qui peut prendre à certains jeux n’importe quelle valeur, selon la volonté de celui qui la détient. Pluriel de joue.

Where the eye mixes joker and joues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
joker
5 ch
joues

Why the eye confuses joker with joues

A purely visual mix-up. joker (\ʒɔ.kɛʁ\) and joues (\ʒu\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19295, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

joker is recorded at frequency rank #13,824, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒɔ.kɛʁ\. joues is at rank #5,471, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒu\.

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 19295, this pair ranks #373,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of joker vs joues

Shared letters: ejo. Private to "joker": kr. Private to "joues": su.

"joker" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "joues" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jokerjjoker · jkoer · joekr · jokerr · jokker · jokre · ojker
  • jouesjjoues · joeus · jouess · jouse · juoes · ojues

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "joker" for "joues" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʒɔ.kɛʁ\ versus \ʒu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "joker" or "joues"?
"joues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,471 in our French list, against #13,824 for "joker". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "joker" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "joues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #373,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "joker" and "joues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "joker 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 #373,958 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list