nomvsnoyéWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#214
“nom” frequency rank
#15,949
“noyé” frequency rank
16163
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nom noyé
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. Personne qui se noie ou qui a péri par noyade.

Where the eye mixes nom and noyé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. nom runs 3 letters (CVC) against noyé's 4 (CVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
nom
4 ch
noyé

Look-alike desk: nom vs noyé

A purely visual mix-up. nom (\nɔ̃\) and noyé (\nwa.je\) 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 16163, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nom is recorded at frequency rank #214, classified as anoun, pronounced \nɔ̃\. noyé is at rank #15,949, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nwa.je\.

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 16163, this pair ranks #389,085 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nom vs noyé

Shared letters: no. Private to "nom": m. Private to "noyé": yé.

"nom" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "noyé" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nom" and "noyé" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\nɔ̃\ versus \nwa.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "nom" or "noyé" show up more?
"nom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #214 in our French list, against #15,949 for "noyé". 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 "nom" and "noyé" 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 "noyé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #389,085 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nom" and "noyé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noués vs noyé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #389,085 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