nonna

noun

The verdict

“nonna” is uncommon French (frequency #83,200 among 1,563 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#83,200
frequency rank, French
1,563
“N” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Grand-mère, aïeule.

Corpus desk

Index FR-nonna · nonna · French

nonna · rank #83,200 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #83,200
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,563
  • PHOTO-FINISH Noura

Nearest frequency peer: Noura (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « nonna »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « nonna » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for nonna
PropertyValue
Headwordnonna
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
Letters5
Frequency rank#83,200
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « nonna » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).nonnatombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Noura » (#83,201), « Nicolae » (#83,198), « Ngozi » (#83,197). Parmi 1,563 lemmes en « N », « nonna » est au #83,200. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

nonna is uncommon French at frequency #83,200 among 1,563 “N” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Grand-mère, aïeule.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for nonna, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is nonna, spelled N-O-N-N-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Grand-mère, aïeule.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Les petits Ritals disent « vous » à leurs parents, les parents disent « vous » à la nonna, la grand-mère. Il y a toujours une nonna, entortillée de chiffons noirs, égreneuse de chapelet, tapie dans le coin de la cuisinière, qui entretient le feu, tient chaude la minestra et surgit à la fenêtre pour appeler les gosses à l’heure de la soupe.

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 "nonna"?
"nonna" is spelled N-O-N-N-A.
What does "nonna" mean?
As a noun, "nonna" means: Grand-mère, aïeule.
What language does "nonna" come from?
"nonna" 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 "nonna", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list