Which to use
“north” and “notch” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #458
- “north” frequency rank
- #9,926
- “notch” frequency rank
- 10384
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | north | notch |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The direction towards the pole to the left-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 0°, or (on another celestial object) the direction towards the pole lying on the northern side of the invariable plane. | A V-shaped cut. |
Where the eye mixes north and notch
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. north and notch follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses north with notch
A purely visual mix-up. north (/nɔːθ/) and notch (/nɒtʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
north is recorded at frequency rank #458, classified as anoun, pronounced /nɔːθ/. notch is at rank #9,926, tagged as anoun, pronounced /nɒtʃ/.
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 10384, this pair ranks #492,622 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of north vs notch
Shared letters: hnot. Private to "north": r. Private to "notch": c.
"north" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "notch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "north" for "notch" ever safe?
Frequency check: "north" vs "notch" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "north" and "notch" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "north" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "notch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #492,622 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "north" and "notch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Noh vs notch". 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 #492,622 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.