noir

/\nwaʁ\/ adj

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#618

in French word usage

Misspellings

5

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

noir is anFrenchadj. It means: Qui absorbe toute la lumière visible qu’il reçoit, donne l’impression d’obscurité ; la plus sombre des couleurs. Pronounced \nwaʁ\. It ranks #618 in French word frequency. Often confused with NR and non.

Key facts for noir
PropertyValue
Headwordnoir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\nwaʁ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#618
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of noir in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for noir is 4 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \nwaʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #618 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for noir, with forms such as "nior", "nnoir", and "noirr". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "NR", "non", "nos", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is noir, spelled N-O-I-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui absorbe toute la lumière visible qu’il reçoit, donne l’impression d’obscurité ; la plus sombre des couleurs.
  2. 2
    Sans lumière, obscur, sombre.
  3. 3
    Qui approchent de cette couleur relativement.
  4. 4
    Bronzé, en parlant de la peau d’une personne.
  5. 5
    Ayant la peau brune jusqu’au noir, en parlant d’une personne.
  6. 6
    Lié à la communauté noire.
  7. 7
    Qui est meurtri.
  8. 8
    Sale, crasseux.
  9. 9
    Triste, morne, mélancolique, irrité, hostile, lugubre ou bien funeste.
  10. 10
    Néfaste, diabolique, en parlant des crimes, des mauvaises actions et des personnes qui les commettent.
  11. 11
    Qui est chargé de menaces, de malheur.
  12. 12
    Complètement ivre d’alcool.
  13. 13
    Qui échappe à la détection, que la science ne peut interpréter.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: nior,nnoir,noirr,nori,onir

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for noir

Misspelling Variants of "noir"

nior4nnoir5noirr5nori4onir4
Misspelling Variants of "noir"

Frequency rank: #618 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "noir"?
"noir" is spelled N-O-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \nwaʁ\.
What does "noir" mean?
As an adj, "noir" means: Qui absorbe toute la lumière visible qu’il reçoit, donne l’impression d’obscurité ; la plus sombre des couleurs.
What words are commonly confused with "noir"?
"noir" is commonly confused with "NR", "non", "nos". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "noir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "noir" is \nwaʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "noir" come from?
"noir" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter N in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.