navevsnodeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“nave” and “node” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#26,896
“nave” frequency rank
#8,583
“node” frequency rank
35479
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nave node
Definition The middle or body of a church, extending from the transepts to the principal entrances. A knot, knob, protuberance or swelling.

Where the eye mixes nave and node

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

4 ch
nave
4 ch
node

Visual trap between nave and node

A purely visual mix-up. nave (/neɪv/) and node (/nəʊd/) 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 35479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nave is recorded at frequency rank #26,896, classified as anoun, pronounced /neɪv/. node is at rank #8,583, tagged as anoun, pronounced /nəʊd/.

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 35479, this pair ranks #311,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nave vs node

Shared letters: en. Private to "nave": av. Private to "node": do.

"nave" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "node" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • naveanve · naev · navve · nnave · nvae
  • nodendoe · nnode · nodde · noed · onde

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nave" for "node" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/neɪv/ versus /nəʊd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "nave" or "node" show up more?
"node" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,583 in our English list, against #26,896 for "nave". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "node" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nave" and "node" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "naan vs nave". 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 #311,573 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list