Which to use
“nine” and “ninja” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,265
- “nine” frequency rank
- #12,205
- “ninja” frequency rank
- 40470
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | nine | ninja |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour le chiffre 9. | Espion japonais. Dans les œuvres de fiction, ils et elles sont plus souvent représenté vêtu de noir, une cagoule masquant son visage, accomplissant des exploits physiques en combat, des acrobaties, et expert dans les techniques de diversion. |
Where the eye mixes nine and ninja
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. nine runs 4 letters (CVCV) against ninja's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: nine vs ninja
A purely visual mix-up. nine (\ˈnai̯na\) and ninja (\nin.dʒa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40470, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
nine is recorded at frequency rank #28,265, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈnai̯na\. ninja is at rank #12,205, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nin.dʒa\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 40470, this pair ranks #240,241 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of nine vs ninja
Shared letters: in. Private to "nine": e. Private to "ninja": aj.
"nine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "ninja" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "nine" for "ninja" ever safe?
Frequency check: "nine" vs "ninja" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "nine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ninja" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #240,241 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "nine" and "ninja" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nine vs nis". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #240,241 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.