Which to use
“narc” is a noun and “nr” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,645
- “narc” frequency rank
- #16,545
- “nr” frequency rank
- 63190
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | narc | nr |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A police officer or federal agent assigned to or engaging in illegal narcotics control. | Abbreviation of near. |
Letter map: narc vs nr
Shared letters muted; letters that set narc and nr apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - narc and nr
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: narc is anoun and nrapreposition. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
narc is recorded at frequency rank #46,645, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈnɑːk/. nr is at rank #16,545, tagged as aprep.
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 63190, this pair ranks #84,354 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of narc vs nr
Shared letters: nr. Private to "narc": ac. Private to "nr": -.
"narc" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "nr" · 2 letters · shape CC
Known mistypes of this pair
- narc ← anrc · nacr · narcc · narrc · nnarc · nrac
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "narc" for "nr" ever safe?
Which is more common, "narc" or "nr"?
Useful next steps
Pair "narc" vs "nr" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "narc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #84,354 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "narc" and "nr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "narc vs narco". 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 #84,354 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.