no

[ˈno]

/[ˈno]/ adv

The verdict

“no” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #9) as an adverb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#9
frequency rank, Spanish
1,151
“N” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Adverbio de negación, respondiendo a una pregunta.

Corpus desk

Index ES-no · no · Spanish

no · rank #9 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #9
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH los

Nearest frequency peer: los (-1 rank slots)

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.

Vecinos de frecuencia del confusable “no”

Pares de peso similar en el corpus, aparte de los confusables abajo

corpus weight

What this shows Las barras sitúan “no” frente a los lemas españoles más cercanos por rango, no un reprint del escritorio de confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

no vs ny
50% similar
no vs nu
50% similar
no vs nt
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for no
PropertyValue
Headwordno
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechAdverb
IPA[ˈno]
Letters2
Frequency rank#9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rango de corpus junto a confusables de “no”

La frecuencia va del puñado de palabras que usamos sin parar (izquierda) a la cola larga que apenas aparece (derecha).nocae aquí:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Los ticks avanzan en logaritmo; cada uno es del orden de diez veces más raro. En la misma franja de rareza aparecen “los” (#8), “un” (#10), “se” (#11). Entre 1,151 lemas con “N”, “no” va en #9. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for no is neighbouring look-alikes ("ny", "nu", …), not just typos; it is anadverb pronounced [ˈno]. Frequency #9 among 1,151 “N” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for no, suggesting the orthography follows predictable Spanish patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ny", "nu", "nt", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct Spanish form is no, spelled N-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    Adverbio de negación, respondiendo a una pregunta.
  2. 2
    Adverbio de negación, negando la frase o expresión que sigue.
  3. 3
    Adverbio de negación, que niega la existencia o realidad del concepto expresado por el adjetivo o sustantivo al que antecede.
  4. 4
    Adverbio de negación necesario al comienzo de las frases con nada, nadie, nunca, y otras negaciones después del verbo.
  5. 5
    Adverbio de negación, usado en frases interrogativas cuando se espera una respuesta positiva.
  6. 6
    Adverbio de negación expletivo, que en comparaciones no niega, sino que refuerza la contraposición de las ideas.
  7. 7
    Manera irónica y sarcástica para responder una pregunta tonta por tratarse de algo obvio.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how no appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. La no existencia del Yeti, es una suposición fundada.
  2. Nada sé. No sé nada.

Antonyms

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 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "no"?
"no" is spelled N-O. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈno].
What does "no" mean?
As an adverb, "no" means: Adverbio de negación, respondiendo a una pregunta.
What words are commonly confused with "no"?
"no" is commonly confused with "ny", "nu", "nt". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "no"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "no" is [ˈno]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "no" come from?
"no" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list