novsnomWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“no” and “nom” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,447
“no” frequency rank
#214
“nom” frequency rank
1661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature no nom
Definition Non par un anglophone ou par un pays anglophone. Mot ou groupe de mots permettant de nommer un être ou une chose. Un nom peut être un nom commun, une locution nominale ou un nom propre.

Where the eye mixes no and nom

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
no
3 ch
nom

Visual trap between no and nom

A purely visual mix-up. no (\no\) and nom (\nɔ̃\) 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 extra letter(s) - “no” sits inside “nom”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

no is recorded at frequency rank #1,447, classified as anoun, pronounced \no\. nom is at rank #214, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nɔ̃\.

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 1661, this pair ranks #437,616 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of no vs nom

Shared letters: no. Private to "no": -. Private to "nom": m.

"no" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "nom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "no" for "nom" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\no\ versus \nɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "no" vs "nom" - which ranks higher?
"nom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #214 in our French list, against #1,447 for "no". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "no" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #437,616 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "no" and "nom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "no vs nop". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #437,616 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list