mobilityvsmotilityWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“mobility” and “motility” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,594
“mobility” frequency rank
#43,268
“motility” frequency rank
49862
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mobility motility
Definition The ability to move; capacity for movement. The state of being motile (moving)

Letter map: mobility vs motility

Shared letters muted; letters that set mobility and motility apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

8 ch
mobility
8 ch
motility

Corpus notes: mobility and motility

mobility and motility are indexed as a confusable English 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 - b in “mobility” becomes t in “motility”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49862, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mobility is recorded at frequency rank #6,594, classified as anoun, pronounced /mə(ʊ)ˈbɪlɪti/. motility is at rank #43,268, tagged as anoun.

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 49862, this pair ranks #179,587 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mobility vs motility

Shared letters: ilmoty. Private to "mobility": b. Private to "motility": -.

"mobility" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "motility" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mobilitymboility · mmobility · mobbility · mobiilty · mobilitty · mobilityy · mobiliyt · mobillity
  • motilitymmotility · moitlity · motiilty · motilitty · motilityy · motiliyt · motillity · motiltiy

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mobility" and "motility" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - b in “mobility” becomes t in “motility”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "mobility" or "motility" show up more?
"mobility" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,594 in our English list, against #43,268 for "motility". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "mobility" and "motility". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mobility" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "motility" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #179,587 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mobility" and "motility" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "modality vs motility". 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 #179,587 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list