MottevsmoveWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,677
“Motte” frequency rank
#16,226
“move” frequency rank
48903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Motte move
Definition Kleinschmetterling mit etwa 1 cm spannenden schmalen Flügeln, dessen Raupe unter anderem Wolle, Seide, Pelzwerk und Tapeten befällt Orts- oder Positionsveränderung, Bewegung

Letter map: Motte vs move

Shared letters muted; letters that set Motte and move apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Motte
4 ch
move

Corpus notes: Motte and move

Motte and move are indexed as a confusable German 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Motte is recorded at frequency rank #32,677, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɔtə]. move is at rank #16,226, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 48903, this pair ranks #1,231,277 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Motte vs move

Shared letters: emo. Private to "Motte": t. Private to "move": v.

"Motte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "move" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mottemmotte · mote · motet · mtote · omtte
  • movemmove · moev · movve · mvoe · omve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Motte" for "move" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "Motte" or "move"?
"move" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,226 in our German list, against #32,677 for "Motte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Motte" and "move".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Motte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "move" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,231,277 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Motte" and "move" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Möhre vs Motte". 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 #1,231,277 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