Which to use
“od” and “oy” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,066
- “od” frequency rank
- #41,948
- “oy” frequency rank
- 67014
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | od | oy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Désigne un fluide, sorte de force vitale qui selon Karl von Reichenbach, émanerait des êtres humains. | Prime. |
Where the eye mixes od and oy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: od vs oy
A purely visual mix-up. od (\ɔd\) and oy (\ɔj\) 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 a single letter - d in “od” becomes y in “oy”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67014, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
od is recorded at frequency rank #25,066, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔd\. oy is at rank #41,948, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔj\.
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 67014, this pair ranks #65,286 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of od vs oy
Shared letters: o. Private to "od": d. Private to "oy": y.
"od" · 2 letters · shape VC · "oy" · 2 letters · shape VV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "od" for "oy" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "od" or "oy" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "od" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "oy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,286 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "od" and "oy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs oy". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #65,286 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.