MoralvsMordWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Moral” and “Mord” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,203
“Moral” frequency rank
#2,457
“Mord” frequency rank
7660
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Moral Mord
Definition die Wertvorstellungen und guten Sitten einer Gesellschaft oder einer Person vorsätzliche Tötung einer Person unter qualifizierten Umständen; in Deutschland, wenn sie aus Mordlust, zur Befriedigung des Geschlechtstriebs, aus Habgier oder sonst aus niedrigen Beweggründen, heimtückisch oder grausam oder mit gemeingefährlichen Mitteln oder um eine andere Straftat zu ermöglichen oder zu verdecken, geschieht

Where the eye mixes Moral and Mord

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Moral
4 ch
Mord

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. Moral ([moˈʁaːl]) and Mord ([mɔʁt]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Moral is recorded at frequency rank #5,203, classified as anoun, pronounced [moˈʁaːl]. Mord is at rank #2,457, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɔʁt].

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 7660, this pair ranks #1,987,386 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Moral vs Mord

Shared letters: mor. Private to "Moral": al. Private to "Mord": d.

"Moral" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Mord" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Moralmmoral · moarl · morall · morla · morral · mroal · omral
  • Mordmmord · modr · mordd · morrd · mrod · omrd

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Moral" and "Mord" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([moˈʁaːl] versus [mɔʁt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Moral" or "Mord"?
"Mord" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,457 in our German list, against #5,203 for "Moral". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Moral" and "Mord". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Moral" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mord" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,987,386 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Moral" and "Mord" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mora vs Moral". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list