nuéesvsnullesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: nuées is a noun, nulles is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nuées” is a noun and “nulles” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,204
“nuées” frequency rank
#18,810
“nulles” frequency rank
64014
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nuées nulles
Definition Pluriel de nuée. Féminin pluriel de nul.

Where the eye mixes nuées and nulles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
nuées
6 ch
nulles

Why the eye confuses nuées with nulles

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nuées is \nɥe\ while nulles is \nyl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64014, 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\. nulles is at rank #18,810, 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 64014, this pair ranks #79,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nuées vs nulles

Shared letters: ensu. Private to "nuées": é. Private to "nulles": l.

"nuées" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "nulles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nullesnlules · nnulles · nulels · nules · nulless · nullse · unlles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nuées" and "nulles" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nuées" is a noun and "nulles" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "nuées" vs "nulles" - which ranks higher?
"nulles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,810 in our French list, against #45,204 for "nuées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "nulles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nuées" and "nulles" 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 #79,105 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