nicevsninesConfusable pair

Quick tell: nice is a adjective, nines is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nice” is an adjective and “nines” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#423
“nice” frequency rank
#35,430
“nines” frequency rank
35853
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nice nines
Definition Pleasant, satisfactory. A pair of nines.

Letter map: nice vs nines

Shared letters muted; letters that set nice and nines apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
nice
5 ch
nines

Grammar separator: nice vs nines

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nice is anadjective and ninesanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35853, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nice is recorded at frequency rank #423, classified as anadj, pronounced /naɪs/. nines is at rank #35,430, tagged as anoun.

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 35853, this pair ranks #308,355 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nice vs nines

Shared letters: ein. Private to "nice": c. Private to "nines": s.

"nice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nines" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nicencie · nicce · niec · nnice
  • ninesinnes · niens · niness · ninnes · ninse · nnies · nnines

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nice" for "nines" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nice" is an adjective and "nines" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "nice" or "nines" show up more?
"nice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #423 in our English list, against #35,430 for "nines". 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 "nice" and "nines". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #308,355 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nice" and "nines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nines vs Noyes". 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 #308,355 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