noyévsnueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,949
“noyé” frequency rank
#5,681
“nue” frequency rank
21630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature noyé nue
Definition Personne qui se noie ou qui a péri par noyade. Synonyme de nuage.

Where the eye mixes noyé and nue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. noyé runs 4 letters (CVVV) against nue's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
noyé
3 ch
nue

Visual trap between noyé and nue

A purely visual mix-up. noyé (\nwa.je\) and nue (\ny\) 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 21630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

noyé is recorded at frequency rank #15,949, classified as anoun, pronounced \nwa.je\. nue is at rank #5,681, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ny\.

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 21630, this pair ranks #362,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of noyé vs nue

Shared letters: n. Private to "noyé": oyé. Private to "nue": eu.

"noyé" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "nue" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "noyé" and "nue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\nwa.je\ versus \ny\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "noyé" or "nue"?
"nue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,681 in our French list, against #15,949 for "noyé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "noyé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #362,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "noyé" and "nue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noués vs noyé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #362,191 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