moevsmurWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: moe is a adjective, mur is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“moe” is an adjective and “mur” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,005
“moe” frequency rank
#26,534
“mur” frequency rank
68539
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moe mur
Definition müde 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs muren

Where the eye mixes moe and mur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
moe
3 ch
mur

Visual trap between moe and mur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moe is [muː] while mur is [muːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68539, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moe is recorded at frequency rank #42,005, classified as anadj, pronounced [muː]. mur is at rank #26,534, tagged as averb, pronounced [muːɐ̯].

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 68539, this pair ranks #504,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of moe vs mur

Shared letters: m. Private to "moe": eo. Private to "mur": ru.

"moe" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "mur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "moe" and "mur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moe" is an adjective and "mur" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "moe" or "mur"?
"mur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,534 in our German list, against #42,005 for "moe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "moe" and "mur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "moe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #504,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moe" and "mur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moe vs mora". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #504,545 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list