Which to use
“note” and “notice” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #973
- “note” frequency rank
- #1,347
- “notice” frequency rank
- 2320
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | note | notice |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A symbol or annotation. | The act of observing; perception. |
Where the eye mixes note and notice
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. note runs 4 letters (CVCV) against notice's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses note with notice
A purely visual mix-up. note (/nəʊt/) and notice (/ˈnəʊ.tɪs/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2320, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
note is recorded at frequency rank #973, classified as anoun, pronounced /nəʊt/. notice is at rank #1,347, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈnəʊ.tɪs/.
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 2320, this pair ranks #525,279 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of note vs notice
Shared letters: enot. Private to "note": -. Private to "notice": ci.
"note" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "notice" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "note" and "notice" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "note" or "notice"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "note" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "notice" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #525,279 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "note" and "notice" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "note vs NPT". 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 #525,279 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.