Which to use
“noyau” and “noyaux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,118
- “noyau” frequency rank
- #18,546
- “noyaux” frequency rank
- 24664
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | noyau | noyaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie centrale, dure, d’une drupe et qui contient une amande. On oppose le noyau au pépin de la baie. | Pluriel de noyau. |
Same sound, different letters: noyau vs noyaux
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. noyau runs 5 letters (CVVVV) against noyaux's 6 (CVVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - noyau and noyaux
This is the hard kind. noyau and noyaux are pronounced identically (\nwa.jo\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “noyau” sits inside “noyaux”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24664, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
noyau is recorded at frequency rank #6,118, classified as anoun, pronounced \nwa.jo\. noyaux is at rank #18,546, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nwa.jo\.
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 24664, this pair ranks #345,316 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of noyau vs noyaux
Shared letters: anouy. Private to "noyau": -. Private to "noyaux": x.
"noyau" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV · "noyaux" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "noyau" for "noyaux" ever safe?
Frequency check: "noyau" vs "noyaux" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "noyau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "noyaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #345,316 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "noyau" and "noyaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nola vs noyau". 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 #345,316 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.