Not vs nox, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“Not” and “nox” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,779
“Not” frequency rank: #46,886
“nox” frequency rank: 48665
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Not	nox
Definition	ein Zustand des Mangels oder des Fehlens an Lebenswichtigem	die Nacht

Where the eye mixes Not and nox

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

Not

3 ch

nox

Why the eye confuses Not with nox

A purely visual mix-up. Not ([noːt]) and nox ([nɔks]) 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 - t in “Not” becomes x in “nox”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Not is recorded at frequency rank #1,779, classified as anoun, pronounced [noːt]. nox is at rank #46,886, tagged as anoun, pronounced [nɔks].

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 48665, this pair ranks #1,240,159 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Not vs nox

Shared letters: no. Private to "Not": t. Private to "nox": x.

"Not" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "nox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Not" for "nox" ever safe?

No. They are said differently ([noːt] versus [nɔks]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary German text, does "Not" or "nox" show up more?

"Not" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,779 in our German list, against #46,886 for "nox". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "Not" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,240,159 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"Not" and "nox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "node vs nox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,240,159 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.