maillonsvsmoellonsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,037
“maillons” frequency rank
#48,050
“moellons” frequency rank
92087
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maillons moellons
Definition Pluriel de maillon. Pluriel de moellon.

Where the eye mixes maillons and moellons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. maillons and moellons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
maillons
8 ch
moellons

Look-alike desk: maillons vs moellons

A purely visual mix-up. maillons (\mɑ.jɔ̃\) and moellons (\mwa.lɔ̃\) 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 92087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maillons is recorded at frequency rank #44,037, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ.jɔ̃\. moellons is at rank #48,050, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mwa.lɔ̃\.

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 92087, this pair ranks #3,284 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maillons vs moellons

Shared letters: lmnos. Private to "maillons": ai. Private to "moellons": e.

"maillons" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC  ·  "moellons" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maillons ← amillons · maillnos · maillonns · maillonss · maillosn · mailolns · mailons · malilons
  • moellons ← meollons · mmoellons · moellnos · moellonns · moellonss · moellosn · moelolns · moelons

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maillons" and "moellons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ.jɔ̃\ versus \mwa.lɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "maillons" or "moellons"?
"maillons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,037 in our French list, against #48,050 for "moellons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maillons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moellons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,284 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maillons" and "moellons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maillons vs mamelons". 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 #3,284 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