nuance

/\nɥɑ̃s\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#9,884

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

6

similar word pairs

nuance is aFrenchnoun. It means: Chacun des degrés différents par lesquels peut passer une couleur, en conservant le nom qui la distingue des autres. Pronounced \nɥɑ̃s\. It ranks #9,884 in French word frequency. Often confused with nuancer and nuancée.

Key facts for nuance
PropertyValue
Headwordnuance
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\nɥɑ̃s\
Letters6
Frequency rank#9,884
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for nuance is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \nɥɑ̃s\. Corpus data places it at rank #9,884 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for nuance, with forms such as "naunce", "nnuance", and "nuacne". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "nuancer", "nuancée", "nuisance", 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 nuance, spelled N-U-A-N-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Chacun des degrés différents par lesquels peut passer une couleur, en conservant le nom qui la distingue des autres.
  2. 2
    Caractéristique subtile changeant légèrement la nature d’une chose.
  3. 3
    Façon d’exprimer les idées qui ne tombe pas dans le tout ou rien, qui refuse le manichéisme.
  4. 4
    Inflexions d’une musique allant dans le sens de la force ou de la douceur.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: naunce,nnuance,nuacne,nuancce,nuanec,nuannce,nunace,unance

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for nuance

Misspelling Variants of "nuance"

naunce6nnuance7nuacne6nuancce7nuanec6nuannce7nunace6unance6
Misspelling Variants of "nuance"

Frequency rank: #9,884 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "nuance"?
"nuance" is spelled N-U-A-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \nɥɑ̃s\.
What does "nuance" mean?
As a noun, "nuance" means: Chacun des degrés différents par lesquels peut passer une couleur, en conservant le nom qui la distingue des autres.
What words are commonly confused with "nuance"?
"nuance" is commonly confused with "nuancer", "nuancée", "nuisance". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "nuance"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "nuance" is \nɥɑ̃s\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "nuance" come from?
"nuance" 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.