mœurs

\mœʁ\

/\mœʁ\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“mœurs” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #10,361. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#10,361
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Habitudes, naturelles ou acquises, relatives à la pratique du bien ou du mal au sens de la morale.

Corpus desk

Index FR-m-urs · mœurs · French

mœurs · rank #10,361 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #10,361
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH motivations

Nearest frequency peer: motivations (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « mœurs »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « mœurs » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

mœurs vs mur
60% similar
mœurs vs mus
60% similar
mœurs vs mars
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for mœurs
PropertyValue
Headwordmœurs
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mœʁ\
Letters5
Frequency rank#10,361
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « mœurs »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).mœursse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « motivations » (#10,360), « Namur » (#10,362), « merdes » (#10,359). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « mœurs » est au #10,361. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around mœurs (IPA \mœʁ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #10,361 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for mœurs, with forms such as "mmœurs", "muœrs", and "mœrus". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mur", "mus", "mars", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is mœurs, spelled M-Œ-U-R-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Habitudes, naturelles ou acquises, relatives à la pratique du bien ou du mal au sens de la morale.
  2. 2
    Ces pratiques lorsqu’elles jouissent d’une bonne considération sociale.
  3. 3
    Police des mœurs, brigade des mœurs.
  4. 4
    Manière de vivre, usages, habitudes ou coutumes particulières de chaque nation.
  5. 5
    Habitudes, inclinations, de la manière de vivre des individus.
  6. 6
    Habitudes naturelles des différentes espèces d’animaux ; habitudes qui résultent de leur instinct ; comportement éthologique.
  7. 7
    Ce qui concerne les habitudes morales du pays et du temps dont il est question dans un poème, dans une pièce de théâtre, ce qui est conforme au caractère des personnages qui y sont introduits.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how mœurs appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Entouré de gens sans mœurs, j'ai imité leurs vices ; j'ai peut-être mis de l'amour propre à les surpasser.
  2. Le premier devoir du législateur est de former et de conserver les mœurs publiques, source de toute liberté, source de tout bonheur social.

Synonyms

coutumeséthosus

This word in other languages

morals(English)costumbres(Español)Bräuche(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • mmœurs
  • muœrs
  • mœrus
  • mœurrs
  • mœurss
  • mœusr
  • œmurs

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mœurs - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

mmœurs1muœrs2mœrus2mœurrs1mœurss1mœusr2œmurs2
Edit distance from "mœurs"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mœurs"?
"mœurs" is spelled M-Œ-U-R-S. The IPA pronunciation is \mœʁ\.
What does "mœurs" mean?
As a noun, "mœurs" means: Habitudes, naturelles ou acquises, relatives à la pratique du bien ou du mal au sens de la morale.
What words are commonly confused with "mœurs"?
"mœurs" is commonly confused with "mur", "mus", "mars". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "mœurs"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mœurs" is \mœʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mœurs" come from?
"mœurs" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mœurs", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Namur#10,362Natal#10,363menés#10,358noces#10,364

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

obéir7 variantsKarim7 variantsIsère7 variantsintra7 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list