nau

/ˈnaw/

//ˈnaw// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“nau” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #17,867) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#17,867
frequency rank, Portuguese
360
“N” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - grande embarcação de guerra ou mercante, de tipo antigo

Corpus desk

Index PT-nau · nau · Portuguese

nau · rank #17,867 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #17,867
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 360
  • PHOTO-FINISH neblina

Nearest frequency peer: neblina (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “nau”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “nau” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

nau vs no
33% similar
nau vs né
33% similar
nau vs nd
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for nau
PropertyValue
Headwordnau
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈnaw/
Letters3
Frequency rank#17,867
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “nau”

Esta escala corre do núcleo do português quotidiano (esquerda) até o rastro de formas raras (direita).naucai aqui:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Os ticks avançam em logaritmo; cada um é da ordem de dez vezes mais raro. Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “neblina” (#17,868), “nacionalmente” (#17,865), “moment” (#17,861). Entre 360 lemas com “N”, “nau” fica em #17,867. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for nau is neighbouring look-alikes ("no", "né", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈnaw/. Frequency #17,867 among 360 “N” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

No generated misspelling entries exist for nau in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "no", "né", "nd", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct Portuguese form is nau, spelled N-A-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    grande embarcação de guerra ou mercante, de tipo antigo
  2. 2
    tripulação
  3. 3
    marinhagem

This word in other languages

carrack(English)carraca(Español)caraque(Français)Karacke(Deutsch)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "nau"?
"nau" is spelled N-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈnaw/.
What does "nau" mean?
As a noun, "nau" means: grande embarcação de guerra ou mercante, de tipo antigo
What words are commonly confused with "nau"?
"nau" is commonly confused with "no", "né", "nd". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "nau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "nau" is /ˈnaw/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "nau" come from?
"nau" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "nau", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Portuguese headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

att#17,701PhD#17,608uni#18,214bot#17,446

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list