nu

/\ny\/ adj

Letters

2 characters

Frequency Rank

#3,697

in French word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

nu is anFrenchadj. It means: Qui n’a pas de vêtements, qui est dévêtu. Pronounced \ny\. It ranks #3,697 in French word frequency. Often confused with ny and nul.

Key facts for nu
PropertyValue
Headwordnu
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\ny\
Letters2
Frequency rank#3,697
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for nu is 2 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ny\. Corpus data places it at rank #3,697 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for nu in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable French patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ny", "nul", "nue", 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 nu, spelled N-U, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui n’a pas de vêtements, qui est dévêtu.
  2. 2
    Qui est dans le dénuement.
  3. 3
    Sans enveloppe, couverture ou ornement habituels.
  4. 4
    Dépouillé, sec, sans agrément.
  5. 5
    Qui est sans fard, sans déguisement.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #3,697 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "nu"?
"nu" is spelled N-U. The IPA pronunciation is \ny\.
What does "nu" mean?
As an adj, "nu" means: Qui n’a pas de vêtements, qui est dévêtu.
What words are commonly confused with "nu"?
"nu" is commonly confused with "ny", "nul", "nue". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "nu"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "nu" is \ny\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "nu" come from?
"nu" 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:

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