Which to use
“mœurs” is a noun and “meurs” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,361
- “mœurs” frequency rank
- #7,342
- “meurs” frequency rank
- 17703
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mœurs | meurs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Habitudes, naturelles ou acquises, relatives à la pratique du bien ou du mal au sens de la morale. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de mourir. |
Same sound, different letters: mœurs vs meurs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - mœurs and meurs
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: mœurs and meurs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \mœʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - œ in “mœurs” becomes e in “meurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17703, 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\. meurs is at rank #7,342, tagged as averb, pronounced \mœʁ\.
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 17703, this pair ranks #381,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mœurs vs meurs
Shared letters: mrsu. Private to "mœurs": œ. Private to "meurs": e.
"mœurs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "meurs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- meurs ← emurs · merus · meurrs · meurss · meusr · mmeurs · muers
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mœurs" for "meurs" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mœurs" or "meurs"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "mœurs" / "meurs". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "mœurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "meurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #381,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mœurs" and "meurs" 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 #381,873 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.