Which to use
“mould” and “moulin” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,078
- “mould” frequency rank
- #40,803
- “moulin” frequency rank
- 56881
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mould | moulin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Commonwealth standard spelling of mold. | A cylindrical, vertical shaft that extends through a glacier and is carved by meltwater from the glacier’s surface. |
Where the eye mixes mould and moulin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mould runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against moulin's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mould and moulin
A purely visual mix-up. mould (/moʊld/) and moulin (/ˈmuːlæn/) 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 56881, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mould is recorded at frequency rank #16,078, classified as anoun, pronounced /moʊld/. moulin is at rank #40,803, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmuːlæn/.
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 56881, this pair ranks #123,090 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mould vs moulin
Shared letters: lmou. Private to "mould": d. Private to "moulin": in.
"mould" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "moulin" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mould" and "moulin" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "mould" vs "moulin" - which ranks higher?
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 "mould" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "moulin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #123,090 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mould" and "moulin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moline vs moulin". 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 #123,090 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.