noixvsnomWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,719
“noix” frequency rank
#214
“nom” frequency rank
6933
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature noix nom
Definition Fruit charnu produit par le noyer (Juglans). C’est une drupe composée d’une écale non consommable, le brou (mésocarpe) et d’un noyau qui, une fois lignifié, en constitue la coque (endocarpe). 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 noix and nom

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

4 ch
noix
3 ch
nom

Visual trap between noix and nom

A purely visual mix-up. noix (\nwa\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6933, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

noix is recorded at frequency rank #6,719, classified as anoun, pronounced \nwa\. 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 6933, this pair ranks #424,766 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of noix vs nom

Shared letters: no. Private to "noix": ix. Private to "nom": m.

"noix" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "nom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • noixniox · nnoix · noixx · noxi · onix

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "noix" and "nom" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\nwa\ versus \nɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "noix" or "nom" show up more?
"nom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #214 in our French list, against #6,719 for "noix". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "noix" 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 #424,766 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "noix" and "nom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noix vs nop". 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 #424,766 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