nuéesvsnuitsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,204
“nuées” frequency rank
#3,627
“nuits” frequency rank
48831
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nuées nuits
Definition Pluriel de nuée. Pluriel de nuit.

Where the eye mixes nuées and nuits

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. nuées (CVVVC) and nuits (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
nuées
5 ch
nuits

Visual trap between nuées and nuits

A purely visual mix-up. nuées (\nɥe\) and nuits (\nɥi\) 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 48831, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nuées is recorded at frequency rank #45,204, classified as anoun, pronounced \nɥe\. nuits is at rank #3,627, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nɥi\.

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 48831, this pair ranks #175,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nuées vs nuits

Shared letters: nsu. Private to "nuées": eé. Private to "nuits": it.

"nuées" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "nuits" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nuits ← niuts · nnuits · nuist · nuitss · nuitts · nutis · units

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nuées" and "nuits" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\nɥe\ versus \nɥi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "nuées" or "nuits" show up more?
"nuits" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,627 in our French list, against #45,204 for "nuées". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nuées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nuits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nuées" and "nuits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noués vs nuées". 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 #175,702 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