moa

\mɔ.a\

/\mɔ.a\/ noun

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

The verdict

“moa” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #45,173) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#45,173
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Une des espèces d'oiseaux terrestres (ratites) géants (jusqu'à trois mètres de haut), incapables de voler, originaires de Nouvelle-Zélande, éteintes après l'arrivée des ancêtres des Maori.

Corpus desk

Index FR-moa · moa · French

moa · rank #45,173 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #45,173
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH minister

Nearest frequency peer: minister (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « moa »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « moa » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

moa vs MR
0% similar
moa vs my
33% similar
moa vs ms
33% similar

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

Key facts for moa
PropertyValue
Headwordmoa
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mɔ.a\
Letters3
Frequency rank#45,173
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « moa »

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « minister » (#45,172), « mobylette » (#45,174), « microbienne » (#45,171). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « moa » est au #45,173. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for moa is neighbouring look-alikes ("MR", "my", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \mɔ.a\. Frequency #45,173 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Gloss: "Une des espèces d'oiseaux terrestres (ratites) géants (jusqu'à trois mètres de haut), incapables de voler, originaires de Nouvelle-Zélande, éteintes après l'arrivée des ancêtres des Maori.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for moa in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MR", "my", "ms", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is moa, spelled M-O-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Une des espèces d'oiseaux terrestres (ratites) géants (jusqu'à trois mètres de haut), incapables de voler, originaires de Nouvelle-Zélande, éteintes après l'arrivée des ancêtres des Maori.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Après quelques minutes de chasse, ces insaisissables moas disparurent derrière les grands arbres.
  2. Parmi les animaux victimes de ces événements, on note les mammouths, les mastodontes, les mégathériums, les rhinocéros laineux, certains kangourous, les moas (oiseaux non volants qui vivaient en Nouvelle-Zélande).

This word in other languages

moa(English)

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 "moa"?
"moa" is spelled M-O-A. The IPA pronunciation is \mɔ.a\.
What does "moa" mean?
As a noun, "moa" means: Une des espèces d'oiseaux terrestres (ratites) géants (jusqu'à trois mètres de haut), incapables de voler, originaires de Nouvelle-Zélande, éteintes après l'arrivée des ancêtres des Maori.
What words are commonly confused with "moa"?
"moa" is commonly confused with "MR", "my", "ms". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "moa"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "moa" is \mɔ.a\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "moa" come from?
"moa" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "moa", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

moo#45,179kar#45,130Hut#45,103gut#45,089

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list