mouldvsmuddWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,078
“mould” frequency rank
#48,367
“mudd” frequency rank
64445
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mould mudd
Definition Commonwealth standard spelling of mold. Obsolete spelling of mud.

Letter map: mould vs mudd

Shared letters muted; letters that set mould and mudd apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
mould
4 ch
mudd

Spelling & dictionary notes on mould vs mudd

mould and mudd are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64445, 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/. mudd is at rank #48,367, tagged as anoun.

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 64445, this pair ranks #77,685 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mould vs mudd

Shared letters: dmu. Private to "mould": lo. Private to "mudd": -.

"mould" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "mudd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mouldmmould · molud · moudl · mouldd · moulld · muold · omuld
  • muddmdud · mmudd · umdd

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mould" and "mudd" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "mould" vs "mudd" - which ranks higher?
"mould" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,078 in our English list, against #48,367 for "mudd". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mould" and "mudd".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mould" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mudd" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #77,685 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mould" and "mudd" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muda vs mudd". 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 #77,685 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