nosvsnoxConfusable pair

Quick tell: nos is a determiner, nox is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nos” is a determiner and “nox” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#147
“nos” frequency rank
#36,973
“nox” frequency rank
37120
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nos nox
Definition Première personne du pluriel. Qui sont à nous. Plusieurs possesseurs et plusieurs objets. Nuit.

Where the eye mixes nos and nox

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

3 ch
nos
3 ch
nox

Why the eye confuses nos with nox

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nos is \no\ while nox is \noks\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “nos” becomes x in “nox”, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37120, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nos is recorded at frequency rank #147, classified as adet, pronounced \no\. nox is at rank #36,973, tagged as anoun, pronounced \noks\.

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 37120, this pair ranks #264,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nos vs nox

Shared letters: no. Private to "nos": s. Private to "nox": x.

"nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nos" and "nox" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nos" is a determiner and "nox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "nos" vs "nox" - which ranks higher?
"nos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #147 in our French list, against #36,973 for "nox". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #264,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nos" and "nox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nop vs nox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #264,754 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