mule

\myl\

/\myl\/ noun

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

The verdict

“mule” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #25,051. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#25,051
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Femelle du mulet, équidé issu du croisement d’un âne et d’une jument et le plus souvent stérile.

Corpus desk

Index FR-mule · mule · French

mule · rank #25,051 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #25,051
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH mourrir

Nearest frequency peer: mourrir (-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 « mule »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « mule » 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).

mule vs mur
50% similar
mule vs mus
50% similar
mule vs mun
50% similar

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

Key facts for mule
PropertyValue
Headwordmule
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\myl\
Letters4
Frequency rank#25,051
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « mule »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).mulese 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 « mourrir » (#25,050), « multiplicité » (#25,052), « morse » (#25,049). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « mule » est au #25,051. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around mule (IPA \myl\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #25,051 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for mule, with forms such as "mlue", "mmule", and "muel". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mur", "mus", "mun", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is mule, spelled M-U-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Femelle du mulet, équidé issu du croisement d’un âne et d’une jument et le plus souvent stérile.
  2. 2
    Animal de trait pour le halage.
  3. 3
    Engin de halage.
  4. 4
    Personne entêtée, butée, têtue.
  5. 5
    Personne qui transporte des marchandises illicites - en particulier, de la drogue - pour le compte d’organisations criminelles.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Jamais le fer relevé de la mule n’a laissé sa trace dans ces détours ; l’homme peut à peine s’y tenir debout, il lui faut la chaussure de corde qui ne peut pas glisser, et le trèfle du bâton ferré qui s’enfonce dans les fentes des rochers.
  2. Derrière eux vient une litière fermée recouverte de maroquin et pourvue, devant et derrière, de brancards entre lesquels marchent des mules richement harnachées.

This word in other languages

mule(English)mula(Español)Maultier(Deutsch)mula(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • mlue
  • mmule
  • muel
  • mulle
  • umle

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mule - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

mlue2mmule1muel2mulle1umle2
Edit distance from "mule"

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 "mule"?
"mule" is spelled M-U-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \myl\.
What does "mule" mean?
As a noun, "mule" means: Femelle du mulet, équidé issu du croisement d’un âne et d’une jument et le plus souvent stérile.
What words are commonly confused with "mule"?
"mule" is commonly confused with "mur", "mus", "mun". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "mule"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mule" is \myl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mule" come from?
"mule" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "mule", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

nano#25,055mime#25,045Iowa#25,020hood#25,001

Similar misspelling depth

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

items5 variantspores5 variantshait5 variantsdada5 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list