mole vs mou, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“mole” is a noun and “mou” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,745
“mole” frequency rank: #25,145
“mou” frequency rank: 36890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	mole	mou
Definition	A naevus, a pigmented, slightly raised, and sometimes hairy spot on the skin.	Sentence-final particle, forms a tag question.

Letter map: mole vs mou

Shared letters muted; letters that set mole and mou apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

mole

3 ch

mou

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mole is anoun and mouaparticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mole is recorded at frequency rank #11,745, classified as anoun, pronounced /məʊl/. mou is at rank #25,145, tagged as aparticle.

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 36890, this pair ranks #299,256 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mole vs mou

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mole": el. Private to "mou": u.

"mole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mou" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

mole ← mloe · mmole · moel · molle · omle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mole" and "mou" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mole" is a noun and "mou" a particle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "mole" or "mou"?

"mole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,745 in our English list, against #25,145 for "mou". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "mole" and "mou". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "mole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "mou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #299,256 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"mole" and "mou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Moog vs mou". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.