nouésvsnulsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,824
“noués” frequency rank
#6,533
“nuls” frequency rank
56357
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature noués nuls
Definition Masculin pluriel de noué. Masculin pluriel de nul.

Where the eye mixes noués and nuls

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. noués runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against nuls's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
noués
4 ch
nuls

Visual trap between noués and nuls

A purely visual mix-up. noués (\nwe\) and nuls (\nyl\) 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 56357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

noués is recorded at frequency rank #49,824, classified as anadj, pronounced \nwe\. nuls is at rank #6,533, tagged as anadj, pronounced \nyl\.

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 56357, this pair ranks #121,588 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of noués vs nuls

Shared letters: nsu. Private to "noués": oé. Private to "nuls": l.

"noués" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "nuls" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nuls ← nlus · nnuls · nulls · nulss · nusl · unls

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "noués" and "nuls" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\nwe\ versus \nyl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "noués" vs "nuls" - which ranks higher?
"nuls" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,533 in our French list, against #49,824 for "noués". 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 "noués" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nuls" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #121,588 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "noués" and "nuls" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nodules 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 #121,588 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