mocvsmoeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,632
“moc” frequency rank
#15,003
“moe” frequency rank
61635
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moc moe
Definition moccasin (type of shoe) Strong interest in, and especially fetishistic attraction towards, fictional characters in anime, manga, video games, and/or similar media.

Letter map: moc vs moe

Shared letters muted; letters that set moc and moe apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
moc
3 ch
moe

Corpus notes: moc and moe

moc and moe 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 - c in “moc” becomes e in “moe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61635, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moc is recorded at frequency rank #46,632, classified as anoun. moe is at rank #15,003, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈməʊ.eɪ/.

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 61635, this pair ranks #93,103 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of moc vs moe

Shared letters: mo. Private to "moc": c. Private to "moe": e.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "moc" for "moe" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - c in “moc” becomes e in “moe”, 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 "moc" or "moe" show up more?
"moe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,003 in our English list, against #46,632 for "moc". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "moc" vs "moe" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "moc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,103 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moc" and "moe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moc vs Moog". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #93,103 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