mole
/məʊl/noun, verb
mole is spelled M-O-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.7 times per million words in written English, the 11,685th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “mol vs mole” about 320 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, mole means “A naevus, a pigmented, slightly raised, and sometimes hairy spot on the skin” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mole is moles.
How many letters and syllables are in mole?
| Letters | 4: M-O-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.7 times per million words; the 11,685th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is mole?
Mole appears 4.7 times per million words in written English, the 11,685th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce mole?
- UK /məʊl/
- UK /mɔʊl/
- /mɒʊl/
As a noun (“Any of several small, burrowing, insectivorous mammals of…”): /məʊl/, /mɒʊl/, /mol/.
As a noun (“A moll, a bitch, a slut”): /məʉl/, [ˈmɔʊɫ].
As a noun (“A massive structure, usually of stone, used as a pier…”): /məʊl/, /mol/, /moʊl/.
As a noun (“Any of several spicy sauces typical of the cuisine of…”): /ˈmoʊleɪ/, /ˈmoʊli/.
Mole has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-mole.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mole!.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with mole
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: mol.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with mole?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mole from its last stressed vowel (/ol/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: melo, elmo, moel.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of mole
- moles plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- mool
- moule
- mowle
- mold
- moling participle, present
- moled participle, past
- mol
- molé
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mole mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A naevus, a pigmented, slightly raised, and sometimes hairy spot on the skin.
- 2
Any of several small, burrowing, insectivorous mammals of the family Talpidae.
- 3
Any of the burrowing rodents also called mole-rats.
- 4
An internal spy; a person who involves themself with an enemy organisation, especially an intelligence or governmental organisation, to determine and betray its secrets from within.
- 5
A kind of self-propelled excavator used to form underground drains, or to clear underground pipelines.
- 6
A type of underground drain used in farm fields, in which a mole plow creates an unlined channel through clay subsoil.
- 7
AustraliaderogatoryslangA moll, a bitch, a slut.
- 8
A massive structure, usually of stone, used as a pier, breakwater or junction between places separated by water.
- 9
rareA haven or harbour, protected with such a breakwater.
- 10
An Ancient Roman mausoleum.
- 11
In the International System of Units, the base unit of amount of substance; the amount of substance of a system which contains exactly 6.02214076×10²³ elementary entities (atoms, ions, molecules, etc.). Symbol: mol. The number of atoms is known as Avogadro’s number.
- 12
A hemorrhagic mass of tissue in the uterus caused by a dead ovum.
- 13
Any of several spicy sauces typical of the cuisine of Mexico and neighboring Central America countries, especially one that contains chocolate and is used in cooking main dishes, not desserts.
verb
- 1
To create a network of channels in (waterlogged soil) to improve drainage.
noun
- 1
Alternative spelling of mole (“sauce”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mole in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | grain de beauté, nævus , taupe , môle , mole |
| German | Muttermal, Mal , Maulwurf, Schëre , Mole , Mol |
| Portuguese | pinta, sinal, mancha, nevo , toupeira , espião |
| Spanish | marca de nacimiento, lunar, nevo, nevus , topo , rompeolas |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does mole come from?
From Middle English mole, mool, from Old English māl (“a mole, spot, mark, blemish”), from Proto-West Germanic *mail, from Proto-Germanic *mailą (“spot, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *mel-, *melw- (“dark, dirty”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey-, *my- (“to soil, sully”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).