nis
"nis" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nis” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #33,760) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #33,760
- frequency rank, English
- 1,534
- “N” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A nix; a hobgoblin, especially one that resides in a farm house.
Corpus desk
Index EN-nis · nis · English
nis · rank #33,760 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #33,760
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,534
- PHOTO-FINISH newlyweds
Nearest frequency peer: newlyweds (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “nis”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- nappy
nappy
66,247 corpus weight
- nears
nears
66,244 corpus weight
- neuter
neuter
66,243 corpus weight
- newlyweds
newlyweds
66,242 corpus weight
- nis
nis
66,241 corpus weight
- och
och
66,236 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “nis” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nis |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #33,760 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “nis”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for nis is neighbouring look-alikes ("NJ", "nm", …), not just typos; it is anoun. Frequency #33,760 among 1,534 “N” headwords. Gloss: "A nix; a hobgoblin, especially one that resides in a farm house.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for nis, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "NJ", "nm", "NZ", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Danish nisse. The correct English form is nis, spelled N-I-S.
Definition
- 1A nix; a hobgoblin, especially one that resides in a farm house.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how nis appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
No farm-house goes on well without there is a Nis in it, and well is it for the maids and the men when they are in favour with him.
The people of the Feroes call the Nisses or Brownies Niagruisar, and describe them as little creatures with red caps on their beads, that bring luck to any place where they take up their abode.
Etymology
From Danish nisse.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "nis", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).