noivsnomWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“noi” and “nom” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,572
“noi” frequency rank
#214
“nom” frequency rank
43786
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature noi nom
Definition Garçon, jeune homme. 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 noi and nom

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

3 ch
noi
3 ch
nom

Look-alike desk: noi vs nom

A purely visual mix-up. noi (\ˈnɔj\) 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 a single letter - i in “noi” becomes m in “nom”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

noi is recorded at frequency rank #43,572, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈnɔj\. 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 43786, this pair ranks #215,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of noi vs nom

Shared letters: no. Private to "noi": i. Private to "nom": m.

"noi" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "nom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "noi" and "nom" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈnɔj\ versus \nɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "noi" or "nom" show up more?
"nom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #214 in our French list, against #43,572 for "noi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "noi" and "nom" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "noi" 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 #215,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "noi" and "nom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noi vs nop". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #215,415 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