mœursvsmarsTell them apart

Which to use

“mœurs” and “mars” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,361
“mœurs” frequency rank
#426
“mars” frequency rank
10787
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mœurs mars
Definition Habitudes, naturelles ou acquises, relatives à la pratique du bien ou du mal au sens de la morale. Troisième mois de l’année du calendrier grégorien, qui compte 31 jours.

Where the eye mixes mœurs and mars

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
mœurs
4 ch
mars

Visual trap between mœurs and mars

A purely visual mix-up. mœurs (\mœʁ\) and mars (\maʁs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10787, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mœurs is recorded at frequency rank #10,361, classified as anoun, pronounced \mœʁ\. mars is at rank #426, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁs\.

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 10787, this pair ranks #411,656 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mœurs vs mars

Shared letters: mrs. Private to "mœurs": . Private to "mars": a.

"mœurs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "mars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marsamrs · marrs · marss · masr · mmars · mras

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mœurs" and "mars" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mœʁ\ versus \maʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mœurs" vs "mars" - which ranks higher?
"mars" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #426 in our French list, against #10,361 for "mœurs". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mœurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mars" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #411,656 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mœurs" and "mars" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mœurs vs Moura". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #411,656 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list