nef

\nɛf\

/\nɛf\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“nef” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #13,434) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#13,434
frequency rank, French
1,563
“N” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Grand navire à voile, à l’époque du Moyen Âge.

Corpus desk

Index FR-nef · nef · French

nef · rank #13,434 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #13,434
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,563
  • PHOTO-FINISH Nadia

Nearest frequency peer: Nadia (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « nef »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « nef » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des 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).

nef vs ni
33% similar
nef vs no
33% similar
nef vs nu
33% similar

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

Key facts for nef
PropertyValue
Headwordnef
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\nɛf\
Letters3
Frequency rank#13,434
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « nef »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).nefse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Nadia » (#13,433), « nerveuse » (#13,435), « mémorable » (#13,432). Parmi 1,563 lemmes en « N », « nef » est au #13,434. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for nef is neighbouring look-alikes ("ni", "no", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \nɛf\. Frequency #13,434 among 1,563 “N” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for nef, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ni", "no", "nu", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is nef, spelled N-E-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    Grand navire à voile, à l’époque du Moyen Âge.
  2. 2
    Meuble représentant de manière stylisée le navire du même nom dans les armoiries. Elle est généralement représentée de profil, proue orientée à dextre avec une voile. Sa coque est généralement formée d’un arc de cercle terminé d’un chapiteau à chaque extrémité. Elle se blasonne comme le navire. À rapprocher de bateau, drakkar, flobard, gabarot, galère, navire et vaisseau.
  3. 3
    Partie d’une église qui s'étend depuis le portail jusqu'au transept, entre les rangs de piliers, de colonnes soutenant la voûte (on dit aussi vaisseau).
  4. 4
    Partie centrale et principale d’un bâtiment.
  5. 5
    Espace qui évoque tant par sa taille ou sa forme, l'architecture d'une église.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how nef appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Oh ! marins perdus ! Au loin, dans cette ombre Sur la nef qui sombre, Que de bras tendus Vers la terre sombre !
  2. Pour mériter le nom de bateau ou nef (navis, buzus ou banzonus), ces embarcations gréées de voiles latines devaient posséder au moins deux ponts, un château arrière, un gaillard d'avant et une hune de combat.

Synonyms

caraque

This word in other languages

nave(English)nao(Español)Schiff(Deutsch)nau(Português)

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "nef"?
"nef" is spelled N-E-F. The IPA pronunciation is \nɛf\.
What does "nef" mean?
As a noun, "nef" means: Grand navire à voile, à l’époque du Moyen Âge.
What words are commonly confused with "nef"?
"nef" is commonly confused with "ni", "no", "nu". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "nef"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "nef" is \nɛf\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "nef" come from?
"nef" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "nef", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Nil#13,436mel#13,425too#13,484VTT#13,490

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list