muddvsmullWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mudd is a noun, mull is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mudd” is a noun and “mull” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,367
“mudd” frequency rank
#31,263
“mull” frequency rank
79630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mudd mull
Definition Obsolete spelling of mud. To work (over) mentally; to cogitate; to ruminate.

Letter map: mudd vs mull

Shared letters muted; letters that set mudd and mull apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mudd
4 ch
mull

Grammar separator: mudd vs mull

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mudd is anoun and mullaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mudd is recorded at frequency rank #48,367, classified as anoun. mull is at rank #31,263, tagged as averb, pronounced /mʌl/.

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 79630, this pair ranks #21,627 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mudd vs mull

Shared letters: mu. Private to "mudd": d. Private to "mull": l.

"mudd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mull" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • muddmdud · mmudd · umdd
  • mullmlul · mmull · mul · umll

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mudd" and "mull" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mudd" is a noun and "mull" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "mudd" or "mull" show up more?
"mull" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,263 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 "mudd" and "mull".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mudd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mull" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,627 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mudd" and "mull" 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 #21,627 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