non vs nos, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“non” is an adverb and “nos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#515
“non” frequency rank: #14,600
“nos” frequency rank: 15115
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	non	nos
Definition	Obsolete form of none.	plural of no

Letter map: non vs nos

Shared letters muted; letters that set non and nos apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

non

3 ch

nos

Role in the sentence - non and nos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: non is anadverb and nosanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - n in “non” becomes s in “nos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15115, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

non is recorded at frequency rank #515, classified as anadv, pronounced /nɑn/. nos is at rank #14,600, 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 15115, this pair ranks #465,960 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of non vs nos

Shared letters: no. Private to "non": -. Private to "nos": s.

"non" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "non" and "nos" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "non" is an adverb and "nos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary English text, does "non" or "nos" show up more?

"non" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #515 in our English list, against #14,600 for "nos". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "non" and "nos". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "non" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #465,960 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"non" and "nos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nos vs NPL". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #465,960 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.