non
/nɑn/adverb, noun
non is spelled N-O-N: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 195 times per million words in written English, the 516th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “non vs none” about 480 times a month (Google, United States). As an adverb, non means “Used to negate or invert the meaning of the following adjective. More properly written as the prefix non-” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in non?
| Letters | 3: N-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 195 times per million words; the 516th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is non?
Non appears 195 times per million words in written English, the 516th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce non?
- US /nɑn/
- UK /nɒn/
Non has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-non.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Neøn-non-.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with non
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: none.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with non?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as non from its last stressed vowel (/ɑn/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of non
- nons plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does non mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
obsoleteObsolete form of none.
- 2
nonstandardUsed to negate or invert the meaning of the following adjective. More properly written as the prefix non-.
noun
- 1
slangA non-Muslim citizen.
- 2
slangA nonwhite person.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Non in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense not:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.