mollvsmollyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,278
“moll” frequency rank
#8,694
“molly” frequency rank
50972
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moll molly
Definition A female companion of a gangster or other criminal, especially a former or current prostitute. A woman or girl, especially of low status or prostitute.

Where the eye mixes moll and molly

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. moll runs 4 letters (CVCC) against molly's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
moll
5 ch
molly

Look-alike desk: moll vs molly

A purely visual mix-up. moll (/mɒl/) and molly (/ˈmɒli/) 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 extra letter(s) - “moll” sits inside “molly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50972, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moll is recorded at frequency rank #42,278, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɒl/. molly is at rank #8,694, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɒli/.

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 50972, this pair ranks #169,495 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of moll vs molly

Shared letters: lmo. Private to "moll": -. Private to "molly": y.

"moll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "molly" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moll ← mlol · mmoll · omll
  • molly ← mloly · mmolly · mollyy · molyl · omlly

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "moll" and "molly" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/mɒl/ versus /ˈmɒli/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "moll" vs "molly" - which ranks higher?
"molly" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,694 in our English list, against #42,278 for "moll". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "moll" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "molly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,495 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moll" and "molly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moll 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 #169,495 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