nonvsnonoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: non is a adverb, nono is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“non” is an adverb and “nono” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,793
“non” frequency rank
#14,415
“nono” frequency rank
21208
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature non nono
Definition não refere-se àquele que ocupa a posição nove em uma série; o que vem depois do oitavo

Letter map: non vs nono

Shared letters muted; letters that set non and nono apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
non
4 ch
nono

Grammar separator: non vs nono

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: non is anadverb and nonoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “non” sits inside “nono”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21208, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

non is recorded at frequency rank #6,793, classified as anadv. nono is at rank #14,415, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈno.nu/.

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 21208, this pair ranks #49,126 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of non vs nono

Shared letters: no. Private to "non": -. Private to "nono": -.

"non" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nono" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nononnono · nnoo · nonno · onno

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "non" and "nono" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "non" is an adverb and "nono" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "non" or "nono"?
"non" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,793 in our Portuguese list, against #14,415 for "nono". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "non" and "nono". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "non" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nono" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,126 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "non" and "nono" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nono vs noon". 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 #49,126 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list