mouais

\mwɛ\

/\mwɛ\/ adv

The verdict

“mouais” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #16,950. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#16,950
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
16
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Marque un « oui » dubitatif ou insatisfait.

Corpus desk

Index FR-mouais · mouais · French

mouais · rank #16,950 · 7 variants · 16 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #16,950
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 16 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH monumentale

Nearest frequency peer: monumentale (-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 « mouais »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « mouais » 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).

mouais vs mous
67% similar
mouais vs munis
67% similar
mouais vs mourir
67% similar

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

Key facts for mouais
PropertyValue
Headwordmouais
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdverb
IPA\mwɛ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#16,950
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs16
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « mouais »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).mouaisse 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 « monumentale » (#16,949), « MW » (#16,951), « mona » (#16,948). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « mouais » est au #16,950. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around mouais (IPA \mwɛ\), anadverb. Corpus frequency is #16,950 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for mouais, with forms such as "mmouais", "moauis", and "mouaiss". 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 16 confusable-pair relationships, "mous", "munis", "mourir", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is mouais, spelled M-O-U-A-I-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Marque un « oui » dubitatif ou insatisfait.
  2. 2
    Marque l’affirmatif, forcé ou contraint, ou tout simplement une affirmation de pratique, et non de principe, par « obligation ».

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. À partir de là, reste plus qu’à choisir, et c’est là que ça commence : celle-là, celle-là, pas celle-là, celle-là, mouais, beuh…, celle-là, celle-là…
  2. Je reviens à la charge avec mon papier rose rempli en noir. — Mouais. Pourquoi vous venez aux USA ? — Tourisme. — Mouais, vous pouvez le prouver ? — Ben, j'ai un sac à dos. — Mouais, mais pourquoi vous venez aux USA ? Ça va pas être aussi simple que prévu.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • mmouais
  • moauis
  • mouaiss
  • mouasi
  • mouias
  • muoais
  • omuais

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mouais - 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.

mmouais1moauis2mouaiss1mouasi2mouias2muoais2omuais2
Edit distance from "mouais"

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 "mouais"?
"mouais" is spelled M-O-U-A-I-S. The IPA pronunciation is \mwɛ\.
What does "mouais" mean?
As an adverb, "mouais" means: Marque un « oui » dubitatif ou insatisfait.
What words are commonly confused with "mouais"?
"mouais" is commonly confused with "mous", "munis", "mourir". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "mouais"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mouais" is \mwɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mouais" come from?
"mouais" 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 "mouais", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list