mood vs mou, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“mood” is a noun and “mou” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,266
“mood” frequency rank: #46,072
“mou” frequency rank: 93338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	mood	mou
Definition	Humor, estado de ánimo.	Blando.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set mood and mou apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

mood

3 ch

mou

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mood is /muːd/ while mou is [mu]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mood is recorded at frequency rank #47,266, classified as anoun, pronounced /muːd/. mou is at rank #46,072, tagged as anadj, pronounced [mu].

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 93338, this pair ranks #1,190 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mood vs mou

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mood": d. Private to "mou": u.

"mood" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "mou" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

mood ← mmood · mod · moodd · omod

Frequency comparison

mood#47,266

mou#46,072

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mood" and "mou" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mood" is a noun and "mou" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "mood" or "mou"?

"mou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,072 in our Spanish list, against #47,266 for "mood". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering mood vs mou

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “mood”; for an adjective, it's “mou”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “mood” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable