marevsmorveTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,992
“mare” frequency rank
#41,907
“morve” frequency rank
53899
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mare morve
Definition Petit amas d’eau dormante qui se forme naturellement par l’abaissement du sol, ou qu’on produit artificiellement dans les villages et dans les fermes, pour des usages communs ou domestiques. Maladie bactérienne grave, avec fièvre, atteignant notamment la peau et les muqueuses, à laquelle les équidés (chevaux, ânes, etc.) sont sujets et qui est très contagieuse entre eux, surtout lors de rassemblements, et peut atteindre d’autres animaux et rarement l’être humain (zoonose).

Where the eye mixes mare and morve

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

4 ch
mare
5 ch
morve

Why the eye confuses mare with morve

A purely visual mix-up. mare (\mɑʁ\) and morve (\mɔʁv\) 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 53899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mare is recorded at frequency rank #11,992, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑʁ\. morve is at rank #41,907, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁv\.

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 53899, this pair ranks #137,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mare vs morve

Shared letters: emr. Private to "mare": a. Private to "morve": ov.

"mare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "morve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maremarre · mmare · mrae
  • morvemmorve · morev · morrve · morvve · movre · mrove · omrve

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mare" and "morve" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɑʁ\ versus \mɔʁv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "mare" or "morve" show up more?
"mare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,992 in our French list, against #41,907 for "morve". 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 "mare" and "morve" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "morve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mare" and "morve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mordue vs morve". 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 #137,678 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