Which to use
“naught” is a pronoun and “naughty” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,510
- “naught” frequency rank
- #9,214
- “naughty” frequency rank
- 39724
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | naught | naughty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nothing. | Mischievous; tending to misbehave or act badly (especially of a child). |
Where the eye mixes naught and naughty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. naught runs 6 letters (CVVCCC) against naughty's 7 (CVVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: naught vs naughty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: naught is /nɔːt/ while naughty is /ˈnɔːti/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “naught” sits inside “naughty”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39724, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
naught is recorded at frequency rank #30,510, classified as apron, pronounced /nɔːt/. naughty is at rank #9,214, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈnɔːti/.
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 39724, this pair ranks #274,113 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of naught vs naughty
Shared letters: aghntu. Private to "naught": -. Private to "naughty": y.
"naught" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC · "naughty" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "naught" for "naughty" ever safe?
Which is more common, "naught" or "naughty"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "naught" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "naughty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #274,113 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "naught" and "naughty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "naught vs nougat". 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 #274,113 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.