non

adv

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

The verdict

“non” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #6,793) as an adverb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#6,793
frequency rank, Portuguese
360
“N” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - não

Corpus desk

Index PT-non · non · Portuguese

non · rank #6,793 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,793
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 360
  • PHOTO-FINISH night

Nearest frequency peer: night (-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 “non”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “non” 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).

non vs nu
33% similar
non vs nos
67% similar
non vs num
33% similar

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

Key facts for non
PropertyValue
Headwordnon
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechAdverb
Letters3
Frequency rank#6,793
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “non”

A frequência vai do punhado de palavras do dia a dia (esquerda) à cauda longa quase nunca usada (direita).noncai 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 “night” (#6,792), “metas” (#6,791), “mesas” (#6,789). Entre 360 lemas com “N”, “non” fica em #6,793. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for non is neighbouring look-alikes ("nu", "nos", …), not just typos; it is anadverb. Frequency #6,793 among 360 “N” headwords. Gloss: "não".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for non, a sign its spelling follows regular Portuguese conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "nu", "nos", "num", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct Portuguese form is non, spelled N-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    não

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how non appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Lei non é la mia sorella.

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 "non"?
"non" is spelled N-O-N.
What does "non" mean?
As an adverb, "non" means: não
What words are commonly confused with "non"?
"non" is commonly confused with "nu", "nos", "num". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "non" come from?
"non" is a Portuguese word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "non", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

let#6,782ego#6,872est#6,876air#6,609

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list