nu
/njuː/
"nu" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nu” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #13,967) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #13,967
- frequency rank, English
- 1,534
- “N” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The letter of the Greek alphabet Ν (N) and ν (n).
Corpus desk
Index EN-nu · nu · English
nu · rank #13,967 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #13,967
- LEN-SHORT 2 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,534
- PHOTO-FINISH obstruction
Nearest frequency peer: obstruction (+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 “nu”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- Monty
Monty
86,038 corpus weight
- mystical
mystical
86,036 corpus weight
- nu
nu
86,034 corpus weight
- obstruction
obstruction
86,033 corpus weight
- odyssey
odyssey
86,032 corpus weight
- om
om
86,031 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “nu” 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 | nu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /njuː/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #13,967 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “nu”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for nu is neighbouring look-alikes ("NZ", "NYC", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /njuː/. Frequency #13,967 among 1,534 “N” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Zero misspellings are on record for nu in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "NZ", "NYC", "nut", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek νῦ (nû), name for the letter of the Greek alphabet Ν (N) and ν (n). The correct English form is nu, spelled N-U.
Definition
- 1The letter of the Greek alphabet Ν (N) and ν (n).
- 2A measure of constringence in lenses or prisms.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek νῦ (nû), name for the letter of the Greek alphabet Ν (N) and ν (n).
This word in other languages
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.