yuanvsyukiTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,717
“yuan” frequency rank
#33,520
“yuki” frequency rank
53237
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature yuan yuki
Definition Devise officielle de la Chine. Un yuan vaut 10 jiaos et 100 fens. Code ISO 4217 : CNY. Langue amérindienne de la famille des langues yukianes parlée par les Yukis aux États-Unis.

Where the eye mixes yuan and yuki

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. yuan (VVVC) and yuki (VVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
yuan
4 ch
yuki

Look-alike desk: yuan vs yuki

A purely visual mix-up. yuan (\jɥan\) and yuki (\ju.ki\) 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 53237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

yuan is recorded at frequency rank #19,717, classified as anoun, pronounced \jɥan\. yuki is at rank #33,520, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ju.ki\.

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 53237, this pair ranks #142,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of yuan vs yuki

Shared letters: uy. Private to "yuan": an. Private to "yuki": ik.

"yuan" · 4 letters · shape VVVC  ·  "yuki" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • yuan ← uyan · yaun · yuann · yuna · yyuan
  • yuki ← uyki · ykui · yuik · yukki · yyuki

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "yuan" and "yuki" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\jɥan\ versus \ju.ki\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "yuan" vs "yuki" - which ranks higher?
"yuan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,717 in our French list, against #33,520 for "yuki". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "yuan" and "yuki" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "yuan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "yuki" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #142,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "yuan" and "yuki" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "yuki vs yum". 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 #142,136 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