Which to use
“moll” and “mould” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,278
- “moll” frequency rank
- #16,078
- “mould” frequency rank
- 58356
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | moll | mould |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A female companion of a gangster or other criminal, especially a former or current prostitute. | Commonwealth standard spelling of mold. |
Where the eye mixes moll and mould
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. moll runs 4 letters (CVCC) against mould's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: moll vs mould
A purely visual mix-up. moll (/mɒl/) and mould (/moʊld/) 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 58356, 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/. mould is at rank #16,078, tagged as anoun, pronounced /moʊld/.
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 58356, this pair ranks #113,104 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of moll vs mould
Shared letters: lmo. Private to "moll": -. Private to "mould": du.
"moll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "mould" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "moll" and "mould" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "moll" or "mould"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "moll" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mould" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #113,104 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "moll" and "mould" 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 #113,104 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.