Which to use
“jonc” and “jour” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,850
- “jonc” frequency rank
- #141
- “jour” frequency rank
- 41991
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | jonc | jour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom donné à des plantes à tige droite et flexible, qui croissent ordinairement le long des eaux, ou même dans l’eau, et dont plusieurs espèces servaient à faire des liens, des nattes, des cannes, etc., du genre Juncus ou qui rappellent ce genre par leur apparence. | Période de vingt-quatre heures, commençant généralement à minuit ; en certains lieux et à certaines époques, le jour commençait plutôt avec le lever ou le coucher du soleil. |
Where the eye mixes jonc and jour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: jonc vs jour
A purely visual mix-up. jonc (\ʒɔ̃\) and jour (\ʒuʁ\) 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 41991, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
jonc is recorded at frequency rank #41,850, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒɔ̃\. jour is at rank #141, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒuʁ\.
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 41991, this pair ranks #229,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of jonc vs jour
Shared letters: jo. Private to "jonc": cn. Private to "jour": ru.
"jonc" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "jour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "jonc" for "jour" ever safe?
Frequency check: "jonc" vs "jour" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "jonc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "jour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #229,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "jonc" and "jour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jonc 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 #229,017 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.