nullevsnullitéWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,529
“nulle” frequency rank
#18,009
“nullité” frequency rank
20538
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nulle nullité
Definition Celle qui est nulle. Caractère de ce qui est nul ou sans valeur.

Where the eye mixes nulle and nullité

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

5 ch
nulle
7 ch
nullité

Look-alike desk: nulle vs nullité

A purely visual mix-up. nulle (\nyl\) and nullité (\ny.li.te\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20538, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nulle is recorded at frequency rank #2,529, classified as anoun, pronounced \nyl\. nullité is at rank #18,009, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ny.li.te\.

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 20538, this pair ranks #367,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nulle vs nullité

Shared letters: lnu. Private to "nulle": e. Private to "nullité": ité.

"nulle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "nullité" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nullenlule · nnulle · nule · nulel · unlle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nulle" and "nullité" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\nyl\ versus \ny.li.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "nulle" or "nullité"?
"nulle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,529 in our French list, against #18,009 for "nullité". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nulle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nullité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #367,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nulle" and "nullité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Nelle vs nulle". 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 #367,775 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