nearvsnrWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: near is a adjective, nr is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“near” is an adjective and “nr” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#514
“near” frequency rank
#16,545
“nr” frequency rank
17059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature near nr
Definition Physically close. Abbreviation of near.

Letter map: near vs nr

Shared letters muted; letters that set near and nr apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
near
2 ch
nr

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: near is anadjective and nrapreposition. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

near is recorded at frequency rank #514, classified as anadj, pronounced /nɪə/. 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 17059, this pair ranks #453,882 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of near vs nr

Shared letters: nr. Private to "near": ae. Private to "nr": -.

"near" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "nr" · 2 letters · shape CC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nearenar · naer · nearr · nera · nnear

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "near" and "nr" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "near" is an adjective and "nr" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "near" or "nr"?
"near" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #514 in our English list, against #16,545 for "nr". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "near" and "nr". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "near" 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 #453,882 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "near" and "nr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "NPL vs nr". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list