moevsmovedConfusable pair

Quick tell: moe is a noun, moved is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“moe” is a noun and “moved” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,003
“moe” frequency rank
#1,053
“moved” frequency rank
16056
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moe moved
Definition Strong interest in, and especially fetishistic attraction towards, fictional characters in anime, manga, video games, and/or similar media. Emotionally affected; touched.

Where the eye mixes moe and moved

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

3 ch
moe
5 ch
moved

Why the eye confuses moe with moved

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moe is /ˈməʊ.eɪ/ while moved is /muːvd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16056, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moe is recorded at frequency rank #15,003, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈməʊ.eɪ/. moved is at rank #1,053, tagged as anadj, pronounced /muːvd/.

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 16056, this pair ranks #460,212 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of moe vs moved

Shared letters: emo. Private to "moe": -. Private to "moved": dv.

"moe" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "moved" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • movedmmoved · moevd · movde · movedd · movved · mvoed · omved

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "moe" for "moved" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moe" is a noun and "moved" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "moe" or "moved" show up more?
"moved" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,053 in our English list, against #15,003 for "moe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "moe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moved" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #460,212 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moe" and "moved" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moe 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 #460,212 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