mœursvsmeufsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#10,361
“mœurs” frequency rank
#16,418
“meufs” frequency rank
26779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mœurs meufs
Definition Habitudes, naturelles ou acquises, relatives à la pratique du bien ou du mal au sens de la morale. Pluriel de meuf.

Where the eye mixes mœurs and meufs

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

5 ch
mœurs
5 ch
meufs

Look-alike desk: mœurs vs meufs

A purely visual mix-up. mœurs (\mœʁ\) and meufs (\mœf\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26779, 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\. meufs is at rank #16,418, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mœf\.

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 26779, this pair ranks #332,906 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mœurs vs meufs

Shared letters: msu. Private to "mœurs": . Private to "meufs": ef.

"mœurs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "meufs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meufsemufs · mefus · meuffs · meufss · meusf · mmeufs · muefs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mœurs" for "meufs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mœʁ\ versus \mœf\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "mœurs" or "meufs" show up more?
"mœurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,361 in our French list, against #16,418 for "meufs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "mœurs" and "meufs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mœurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meufs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #332,906 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mœurs" and "meufs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meufs vs meuh". 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 #332,906 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