nouevsnozWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,457
“noue” frequency rank
#38,450
“noz” frequency rank
64907
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature noue noz
Definition Endroit où se rencontrent les surfaces inclinées de deux combles. Nuit.

Where the eye mixes noue and noz

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

4 ch
noue
3 ch
noz

Why the eye confuses noue with noz

A purely visual mix-up. noue (\nu\) and noz (\ˈnoːs\) 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 64907, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

noue is recorded at frequency rank #26,457, classified as anoun, pronounced \nu\. noz is at rank #38,450, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈnoːs\.

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 64907, this pair ranks #74,765 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of noue vs noz

Shared letters: no. Private to "noue": eu. Private to "noz": z.

"noue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "noz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • noue ← nnoue · noeu · nuoe · onue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "noue" for "noz" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\nu\ versus \ˈnoːs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "noue" vs "noz" - which ranks higher?
"noue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,457 in our French list, against #38,450 for "noz". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "noue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "noz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,765 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "noue" and "noz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nop vs noz". 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 #74,765 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