Noël

\nɔ.ɛl\

/\nɔ.ɛl\/ name

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

The verdict

“Noël” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,397. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,397
frequency rank, French
1,563
“N” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Fête chrétienne commémorant la naissance de Jésus-Christ, le 25 décembre.

Corpus desk

Index FR-noel · Noël · French

Noël · rank #1,397 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,397
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,563
  • PHOTO-FINISH noms

Nearest frequency peer: noms (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « Noël »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « Noël » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

Noël vs non
25% similar
Noël vs nos
25% similar
Noël vs nom
25% similar

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

Key facts for Noël
PropertyValue
HeadwordNoël
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\nɔ.ɛl\
Letters4
Frequency rank#1,397
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « Noël »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).Noëlse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « noms » (#1,396), « papier » (#1,398), « mérite » (#1,395). Parmi 1,563 lemmes en « N », « Noël » est au #1,397. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around Noël (IPA \nɔ.ɛl\), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #1,397 among 1,563 “N” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for Noël, with forms such as "nnoël", "nolë", and "noëll". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "non", "nos", "nom", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is Noël, spelled N-O-Ë-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Fête chrétienne commémorant la naissance de Jésus-Christ, le 25 décembre.
  2. 2
    Jésus-Christ à sa naissance.
  3. 3
    Manifestation récréative organisée au profit des enfants du personnel par une entreprise, une administration, une collectivité en général, à l’occasion des fêtes de Noël, souvent autour d’un arbre de Noël.
  4. 4
    Chant, chanson de Noël.
  5. 5
    Étrennes à l’occasion de la fête de Noël.
  6. 6
    Fête de Noël.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Puis, soudain, je me souviens que c’est aujourd’hui la veille de Noël !
  2. Le nom de Noël était du reste inconnu à Mme Swann et à Gilberte qui l’avaient remplacé par celui de Christmas, et ne parlaient que du pudding de Christmas, de ce qu’on leur avait donné pour leur Christmas, de s’absenter — ce qui me rendait fou de douleur — pour Christmas. Même à la maison, je me serais cru déshonoré en parlant de Noël et je ne disais plus…

Synonyms

Nativitéfête de Noël

This word in other languages

Christmas(English)Navidad(Español)Weihnachten(Deutsch)Natal(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • nnoël
  • nolë
  • noëll
  • nëol
  • onël

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Noël - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

nnoël1nolë2noëll1nëol2onël2
Edit distance from "Noël"

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 "Noël"?
"Noël" is spelled N-O-Ë-L. The IPA pronunciation is \nɔ.ɛl\.
What does "Noël" mean?
As a proper noun, "Noël" means: Fête chrétienne commémorant la naissance de Jésus-Christ, le 25 décembre.
What words are commonly confused with "Noël"?
"Noël" is commonly confused with "non", "nos", "nom". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "Noël"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Noël" is \nɔ.ɛl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Noël" come from?
"Noël" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "Noël", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

noms#1,396etre#1,412sœur#1,380rire#1,375

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).

tuer5 variantscoin5 variantsacte5 variantsmari5 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list