Which to use
“mold” and “mop” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,089
- “mold” frequency rank
- #17,422
- “mop” frequency rank
- 27511
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mold | mop |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A hollow form or matrix for shaping a fluid or plastic substance. | An implement for washing floors or similar, made of a piece of cloth, or a collection of thrums, or coarse yarn, fastened to a handle. |
Where the eye mixes mold and mop
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mold and mop
A purely visual mix-up. mold (/məʊld/) and mop (/mɒp/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mold is recorded at frequency rank #10,089, classified as anoun, pronounced /məʊld/. mop is at rank #17,422, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɒp/.
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 27511, this pair ranks #378,355 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mold vs mop
Shared letters: mo. Private to "mold": dl. Private to "mop": p.
"mold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "mop" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mold ← mlod · mmold · modl · moldd · molld · omld
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mold" and "mop" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "mold" or "mop" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mop" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #378,355 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mold" and "mop" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Moog vs mop". 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 #378,355 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.