maplevsmolleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#23,931
“maple” frequency rank
#14,319
“molle” frequency rank
38250
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maple molle
Definition Érable. Poudre de charbon mélangée avec de la stérile.

Where the eye mixes maple and molle

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

5 ch
maple
5 ch
molle

Why the eye confuses maple with molle

A purely visual mix-up. maple (\meɪ.pəl\) and molle (\mɔl\) 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 38250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maple is recorded at frequency rank #23,931, classified as anoun, pronounced \meɪ.pəl\. molle is at rank #14,319, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔl\.

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 38250, this pair ranks #256,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maple vs molle

Shared letters: elm. Private to "maple": ap. Private to "molle": o.

"maple" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "molle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maplemalpe · mapel · maplle · mapple · mmaple · mpale
  • mollemlole · mmolle · molel · omlle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maple" for "molle" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\meɪ.pəl\ versus \mɔl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "maple" or "molle"?
"molle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,319 in our French list, against #23,931 for "maple". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "maple" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "molle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #256,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maple" and "molle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maël vs maple". 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 #256,618 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