diff --git a/tests/test_crawl.py b/tests/test_crawl.py
index 4f7c24e27..44ced42f5 100644
--- a/tests/test_crawl.py
+++ b/tests/test_crawl.py
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ class CrawlTestCase(TestCase):
             raise unittest.SkipTest("Non-existing hosts are resolvable")
         crawler = get_crawler(SimpleSpider)
         with LogCapture() as log:
-            # try to fetch the homepage of a non-existent domain
+            # try to fetch the homepage of a nonexistent domain
             yield crawler.crawl("http://dns.resolution.invalid./", mockserver=self.mockserver)
         self._assert_retried(log)
 
diff --git a/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py b/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py
index 3dc2745a0..433b6d0c8 100644
--- a/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py
+++ b/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py
@@ -1050,8 +1050,8 @@ class BaseFTPTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
         return self._add_test_callbacks(d, _test)
 
-    def test_ftp_download_notexist(self):
-        request = Request(url=f"ftp://127.0.0.1:{self.portNum}/notexist.txt",
+    def test_ftp_download_nonexistent(self):
+        request = Request(url=f"ftp://127.0.0.1:{self.portNum}/nonexistent.txt",
                           meta=self.req_meta)
         d = self.download_handler.download_request(request, None)
 
diff --git a/tests/test_http_request.py b/tests/test_http_request.py
index 9f7f1854f..c3b729b76 100644
--- a/tests/test_http_request.py
+++ b/tests/test_http_request.py
@@ -873,7 +873,7 @@ class FormRequestTest(RequestTest):
         fs = _qs(r1)
         self.assertEqual(fs, {b'four': [b'4'], b'three': [b'3']})
 
-    def test_from_response_formname_notexist(self):
+    def test_from_response_formname_nonexistent(self):
         response = _buildresponse(
             """<form name="form1" action="post.php" method="POST">
             <input type="hidden" name="one" value="1">
@@ -912,7 +912,7 @@ class FormRequestTest(RequestTest):
         fs = _qs(r1)
         self.assertEqual(fs, {b'four': [b'4'], b'three': [b'3']})
 
-    def test_from_response_formname_notexists_fallback_formid(self):
+    def test_from_response_formname_nonexistent_fallback_formid(self):
         response = _buildresponse(
             """<form action="post.php" method="POST">
             <input type="hidden" name="one" value="1">
@@ -927,7 +927,7 @@ class FormRequestTest(RequestTest):
         fs = _qs(r1)
         self.assertEqual(fs, {b'four': [b'4'], b'three': [b'3']})
 
-    def test_from_response_formid_notexist(self):
+    def test_from_response_formid_nonexistent(self):
         response = _buildresponse(
             """<form id="form1" action="post.php" method="POST">
             <input type="hidden" name="one" value="1">
diff --git a/tests/test_utils_python.py b/tests/test_utils_python.py
index 403e4f8fe..8cca17aa5 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils_python.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils_python.py
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ class UtilsPythonTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         b = Obj()
         # no attributes given return False
         self.assertFalse(equal_attributes(a, b, []))
-        # not existent attributes
+        # nonexistent attributes
         self.assertFalse(equal_attributes(a, b, ['x', 'y']))
 
         a.x = 1