nid

\ni\

/\ni\/ noun

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

The verdict

“nid” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #7,871) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#7,871
frequency rank, French
1,563
“N” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Abri en forme de petite corbeille que les oiseaux construisent pour y déposer leurs œufs et y élever leurs petits.

Corpus desk

Index FR-nid · nid · French

nid · rank #7,871 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,871
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,563
  • PHOTO-FINISH neuvième

Nearest frequency peer: neuvième (-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 « nid »

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

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « nid » 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).

nid vs no
33% similar
nid vs nu
33% similar
nid vs ny
33% similar

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

Key facts for nid
PropertyValue
Headwordnid
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ni\
Letters3
Frequency rank#7,871
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « nid »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).nidse 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 « neuvième » (#7,870), « notaire » (#7,872), « neutralité » (#7,869). Parmi 1,563 lemmes en « N », « nid » est au #7,871. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for nid is neighbouring look-alikes ("no", "nu", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ni\. Frequency #7,871 among 1,563 “N” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for nid, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "no", "nu", "ny", 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 its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is nid, spelled N-I-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Abri en forme de petite corbeille que les oiseaux construisent pour y déposer leurs œufs et y élever leurs petits.
  2. 2
    Nidification, période où les oiseaux couvent et élèvent leur progéniture.
  3. 3
    Logement que se construisent certains animaux ; endroit où ils se retirent.
  4. 4
    Endroit caché, cachette, retraite.
  5. 5
    Endroit confortable.
  6. 6
    (Par analogie avec le guêpier ou nid de guêpes qui rassemble un petit nombre d’éléments hostiles) Petit groupe, caché ou non, de personnes ou de choses dangereuses.
  7. 7
    Sphère accrochée à un filer et destinée à servir de logement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il y aura là encore des nids et de confiants oiseaux dont les amours ne seront point troublées.
  2. Elle happait celui-ci qui découvrait au fond d'une broussaille touffue un nid de merles intérieurement calfaté de bouse.

Synonyms

airefourmilièrenichenichoirrepairetanièreterrier

This word in other languages

nest(English)nido(Español)Nest(Deutsch)ninho(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 "nid"?
"nid" is spelled N-I-D. The IPA pronunciation is \ni\.
What does "nid" mean?
As a noun, "nid" means: Abri en forme de petite corbeille que les oiseaux construisent pour y déposer leurs œufs et y élever leurs petits.
What words are commonly confused with "nid"?
"nid" is commonly confused with "no", "nu", "ny". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "nid"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "nid" is \ni\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "nid" come from?
"nid" is a French 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

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

lie#7,855fox#7,832cia#7,940nba#7,997

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list