nostravsnostrilWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,799
“nostra” frequency rank
#38,519
“nostril” frequency rank
86318
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nostra nostril
Definition plural of nostrum Either of the two orifices located on the nose (or on the beak of a bird); used as a passage for air and other gases to travel the nasal passages.

Letter map: nostra vs nostril

Shared letters muted; letters that set nostra and nostril apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. nostra runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against nostril's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
nostra
7 ch
nostril

Corpus notes: nostra and nostril

nostra and nostril are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86318, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nostra is recorded at frequency rank #47,799, classified as anoun. nostril is at rank #38,519, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈnɒs.tɹɪl/.

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 86318, this pair ranks #9,139 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nostra vs nostril

Shared letters: norst. Private to "nostra": a. Private to "nostril": il.

"nostra" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "nostril" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nostra ← nnostra · nosrta · nosstra · nostar · nostrra · nosttra · notsra · nsotra
  • nostril ← nnostril · nosrtil · nosstril · nostirl · nostrill · nostrli · nostrril · nosttril

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nostra" and "nostril" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "nostra" or "nostril"?
"nostril" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,519 in our English list, against #47,799 for "nostra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "nostra" and "nostril".

  • Full dictionary entry for "nostra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nostril" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,139 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nostra" and "nostril" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Nomura vs nostra". 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 #9,139 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