niecevsniteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,371
“niece” frequency rank
#29,012
“nite” frequency rank
38383
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature niece nite
Definition A daughter of one’s sibling, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law; either the daughter of one's brother ("fraternal niece"), or of one's sister ("sororal niece"). Informal spelling of night.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set niece and nite apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
niece
4 ch
nite

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. niece (/niːs/) and nite (/naɪt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

niece is recorded at frequency rank #9,371, classified as anoun, pronounced /niːs/. nite is at rank #29,012, tagged as anoun, pronounced /naɪt/.

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 38383, this pair ranks #286,382 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of niece vs nite

Shared letters: ein. Private to "niece": c. Private to "nite": t.

"niece" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "nite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nieceinece · neice · nicee · niecce · nieec · nniece
  • niteinte · niet · nitte · nnite · ntie

Frequency comparison

niece#9,371
nite#29,012

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "niece" and "nite" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/niːs/ versus /naɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "niece" or "nite"?
"niece" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,371 in our English list, against #29,012 for "nite". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering niece vs nite

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “niece” 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