joutevsjukeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,569
“joute” frequency rank
#42,964
“juke” frequency rank
74533
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature joute juke
Definition Combat à cheval d'homme à homme avec la lance. Bar dansant.

Where the eye mixes joute and juke

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

5 ch
joute
4 ch
juke

Why the eye confuses joute with juke

A purely visual mix-up. joute (\ʒut\) and juke (\dʒuk\) 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 74533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

joute is recorded at frequency rank #31,569, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒut\. juke is at rank #42,964, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʒuk\.

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 74533, this pair ranks #36,855 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of joute vs juke

Shared letters: eju. Private to "joute": ot. Private to "juke": k.

"joute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "juke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • joutejjoute · jotue · joutte · juote · ojute
  • jukejjuke · jkue · juek · jukke · ujke

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "joute" and "juke" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʒut\ versus \dʒuk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "joute" vs "juke" - which ranks higher?
"joute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,569 in our French list, against #42,964 for "juke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "joute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "juke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,855 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "joute" and "juke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "juju vs juke". 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 #36,855 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