new vs nu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“new” and “nu” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,338
“new” frequency rank: #5,663
“nu” frequency rank: 7001
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	new	nu
Definition	novo:	despido, em pelo, sem roupas

Same sound, different letters: new vs nu

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 1 letter.

3 ch

new

2 ch

Ear matches; page differs - new and nu

This is the hard kind. new and nu are pronounced identically (/nuː/) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

new is recorded at frequency rank #1,338, classified as anadj, pronounced /nuː/. nu is at rank #5,663, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈnu/.

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 7001, this pair ranks #67,259 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of new vs nu

Shared letters: n. Private to "new": ew. Private to "nu": u.

"new" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "nu" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "new" and "nu" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are pronounced the same (/nuː/), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "new" or "nu"?

"new" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,338 in our Portuguese list, against #5,663 for "nu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "new" / "nu". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

Full dictionary entry for "new" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #67,259 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"new" and "nu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nu vs null". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #67,259 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.