nomvsnomeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#214
“nom” frequency rank
#46,915
“nome” frequency rank
47129
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nom nome
Definition 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. Sorte de poèmes qui se chantaient en l’honneur d’Apollon.

Where the eye mixes nom and nome

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
nom
4 ch
nome

Visual trap between nom and nome

A purely visual mix-up. nom (\nɔ̃\) and nome (\nɔm\) 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) - “nom” sits inside “nome”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47129, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nom is recorded at frequency rank #214, classified as anoun, pronounced \nɔ̃\. nome is at rank #46,915, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nɔm\.

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 47129, this pair ranks #189,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nom vs nome

Shared letters: mno. Private to "nom": -. Private to "nome": e.

"nom" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nome" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nomenmoe · nnome · noem · onme

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nom" and "nome" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\nɔ̃\ versus \nɔm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "nom" or "nome"?
"nom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #214 in our French list, against #46,915 for "nome". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nome" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nom" and "nome" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nome vs noués". 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 #189,339 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