num vs nur, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#234
“num” frequency rank: #35,702
“nur” frequency rank: 35936
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	num	nur
Definition	o mesmo que não	apenas, somente, meramente

Letter map: num vs nur

Shared letters muted; letters that set num and nur apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

num

3 ch

nur

Pair insight - num / nur

num and nur are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - m in “num” becomes r in “nur”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

num is recorded at frequency rank #234, classified as anadv. nur is at rank #35,702, tagged as anadv, pronounced /nuːɐ̯/.

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 35936, this pair ranks #31,002 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of num vs nur

Shared letters: nu. Private to "num": m. Private to "nur": r.

"num" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "nur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "num" for "nur" ever safe?

No. They differ by a single letter - m in “num” becomes r in “nur”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "num" or "nur"?

"num" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #234 in our Portuguese list, against #35,702 for "nur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "num" and "nur". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "num" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #31,002 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"num" and "nur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Nauru vs nur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #31,002 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.