nuisance
/ˈnuː.səns/noun
nuisance is spelled N-U-I-S-A-N-C-E. The wrong spelling people search most is nusance: about 160 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 23 of all searches for the word. Nuisance is a noun meaning “A minor annoyance or inconvenience”. The plural of nuisance is nuisances.
How many letters and syllables are in nuisance?
| Letters | 8: N-U-I-S-A-N-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.2 times per million words; the 14,928th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, nusance, about 160 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell nuisance?
Nuisance is spelled N-U-I-S-A-N-C-E. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 13 of the searches for nuisance in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is nuisance?
Nuisance appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,928th 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 nuisance?
- UK /ˈnjuː.səns/
- US /ˈnuː.səns/
Nuisance has 2 syllables (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-nuisance.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of nuisance
- nuisances plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does nuisance mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A minor annoyance or inconvenience.
The neighbor's dog barking throughout the night is a right nuisance - I'm going to complain.
- 2
A person or thing causing annoyance or inconvenience.
You can be such a nuisance when you don't get your way.
- 3
Anything harmful or offensive to the community or to a member of it, for which a legal remedy exists.
a public nuisance
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Nuisance in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | embêtement, nuisance |
| German | Ärgernis, Ärger , Quälgeist , Belästigung |
| Portuguese | incômodo, distúrbio, inconveniente, pedra no sapato , inadequado |
| Spanish | molestia, engorro, incomodidad, molienda, giba , inconveniente |
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.
Where does nuisance come from?
From Middle English noysaunce, from Anglo-Norman nusaunce, nussance and Old French nuisance, from nuisir (“to harm”), from Latin nocēre. Doublet of nocence and nocency.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).