ninevsnomeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: nine is a num, nome is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nine” is a num and “nome” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,431
“nine” frequency rank
#43,283
“nome” frequency rank
44714
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nine nome
Definition A numerical value equal to 9; the number following eight and preceding ten. A prefecture or unit of regional government in Greece.

Where the eye mixes nine and nome

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. nine and nome follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
nine
4 ch
nome

Visual trap between nine and nome

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nine is /naɪn/ while nome is /nəʊm/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (num vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44714, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nine is recorded at frequency rank #1,431, classified as anum, pronounced /naɪn/. nome is at rank #43,283, tagged as anoun, pronounced /nəʊm/.

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 44714, this pair ranks #228,037 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nine vs nome

Shared letters: en. Private to "nine": i. Private to "nome": mo.

"nine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nome" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nineinne · nien · ninne · nnie · nnine
  • nomenmoe · nnome · noem · nomme · onme

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nine" for "nome" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nine" is a num and "nome" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "nine" or "nome" show up more?
"nine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,431 in our English list, against #43,283 for "nome". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nome" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,037 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nine" and "nome" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nome vs nori". 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 #228,037 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