nepvsnogWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,538
“nep” frequency rank
#46,089
“nog” frequency rank
91627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nep nog
Definition Catmint, catnip; Nepeta cataria. A wooden block, the size of a brick, built into a wall, as a hold for the nails of woodwork.

Where the eye mixes nep and nog

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. nep and nog follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
nep
3 ch
nog

Look-alike desk: nep vs nog

A purely visual mix-up. nep (/nɛp/) and nog (/nɒɡ/) 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 91627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nep is recorded at frequency rank #45,538, classified as anoun, pronounced /nɛp/. nog is at rank #46,089, tagged as anoun, pronounced /nɒɡ/.

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 91627, this pair ranks #3,143 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nep vs nog

Shared letters: n. Private to "nep": ep. Private to "nog": go.

"nep" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nog" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nep" for "nog" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/nɛp/ versus /nɒɡ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "nep" or "nog"?
"nep" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,538 in our English list, against #46,089 for "nog". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nep" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nog" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,143 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nep" and "nog" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nog vs NPL". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #3,143 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