NullvsnulleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#45,201
“Null” frequency rank
#2,529
“nulle” frequency rank
47730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Null nulle
Definition Zéro. Celle qui est nulle.

Where the eye mixes Null and nulle

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

4 ch
Null
5 ch
nulle

Look-alike desk: Null vs nulle

A purely visual mix-up. Null (\nʊl\) and nulle (\nyl\) 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 extra letter(s) - “Null” sits inside “nulle”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Null is recorded at frequency rank #45,201, classified as anoun, pronounced \nʊl\. nulle is at rank #2,529, tagged as anoun, 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 47730, this pair ranks #184,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Null vs nulle

Shared letters: lnu. Private to "Null": -. Private to "nulle": e.

"Null" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "nulle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Nullnlul · nnull · unll
  • nullenlule · nnulle · nule · nulel · unlle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Null" and "nulle" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\nʊl\ versus \nyl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Null" or "nulle"?
"nulle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,529 in our French list, against #45,201 for "Null". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Null" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nulle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Null" and "nulle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nola vs Null". 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 #184,596 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