nuagevsnuqueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,634
“nuage” frequency rank
#11,626
“nuque” frequency rank
18260
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nuage nuque
Definition Amas de gouttelettes d’eau maintenues en suspension dans l’atmosphère et qui se résolvent ordinairement en pluie. Partie dorsale du cou.

Where the eye mixes nuage and nuque

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
nuage
5 ch
nuque

Visual trap between nuage and nuque

A purely visual mix-up. nuage (\ny.aʒ\) and nuque (\nyk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18260, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nuage is recorded at frequency rank #6,634, classified as anoun, pronounced \ny.aʒ\. nuque is at rank #11,626, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nyk\.

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 18260, this pair ranks #379,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nuage vs nuque

Shared letters: enu. Private to "nuage": ag. Private to "nuque": q.

"nuage" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "nuque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nuagenauge · nnuage · nuaeg · nuagge · nugae · unage
  • nuquennuque · nquue · nuqeu · nuqque · nuuqe · unque

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nuage" and "nuque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ny.aʒ\ versus \nyk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "nuage" vs "nuque" - which ranks higher?
"nuage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,634 in our French list, against #11,626 for "nuque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "nuage" and "nuque" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nuage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nuque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #379,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nuage" and "nuque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nuque vs nurse". 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 #379,223 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