nicevsNMEWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#423
“nice” frequency rank
#43,279
“NME” frequency rank
43702
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nice NME
Definition Pleasant, satisfactory. Initialism of New Musical Express.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set nice and NME apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
nice
3 ch
NME

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nice is anadjective and NMEaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43702, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nice is recorded at frequency rank #423, classified as anadj, pronounced /naɪs/. NME is at rank #43,279, tagged as aname.

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 43702, this pair ranks #237,443 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nice vs NME

Shared letters: en. Private to "nice": ci. Private to "NME": m.

"nice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "NME" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nicencie · nicce · niec · nnice

Frequency comparison

nice#423
NME#43,279

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nice" and "NME" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nice" is an adjective and "NME" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nice" or "NME"?
"nice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #423 in our English list, against #43,279 for "NME". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering nice vs NME

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “nice”; for a name, it's “NME”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “nice” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list