Which to use
“moby” is a noun and “mow” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,998
- “moby” frequency rank
- #25,486
- “mow” frequency rank
- 54484
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | moby | mow |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A mobile phone. | To cut down grass or crops. |
Letter map: moby vs mow
Shared letters muted; letters that set moby and mow apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for moby / mow
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: moby is anoun and mowaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54484, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
moby is recorded at frequency rank #28,998, classified as anoun. mow is at rank #25,486, tagged as averb, pronounced /məʊ/.
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 54484, this pair ranks #140,764 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of moby vs mow
Shared letters: mo. Private to "moby": by. Private to "mow": w.
"moby" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mow" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- moby ← mboy · mmoby · mobby · mobyy · moyb · omby
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "moby" for "mow" ever safe?
Which is more common, "moby" or "mow"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "moby" and "mow". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "moby" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #140,764 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "moby" and "mow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moby vs Moog". 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 #140,764 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.