masquervsmoquerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,210
“masquer” frequency rank
#9,351
“moquer” frequency rank
22561
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature masquer moquer
Definition Mettre un masque à quelqu’un. Se railler de quelqu’un ou de quelque chose, en rire, en faire un sujet de plaisanterie ou de dérision.

Where the eye mixes masquer and moquer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
masquer
6 ch
moquer

Visual trap between masquer and moquer

A purely visual mix-up. masquer (\mas.ke\) and moquer (\mɔ.ke\) 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 22561, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

masquer is recorded at frequency rank #13,210, classified as averb, pronounced \mas.ke\. moquer is at rank #9,351, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ.ke\.

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 22561, this pair ranks #357,324 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of masquer vs moquer

Shared letters: emqru. Private to "masquer": as. Private to "moquer": o.

"masquer" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "moquer" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • masqueramsquer · maqsuer · masqeur · masqquer · masquerr · masqure · massquer · masuqer
  • moquermmoquer · moqeur · moqquer · moquerr · moqure · mouqer · mqouer · omquer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "masquer" for "moquer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mas.ke\ versus \mɔ.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "masquer" vs "moquer" - which ranks higher?
"moquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,351 in our French list, against #13,210 for "masquer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "masquer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,324 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "masquer" and "moquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "masquent vs masquer". 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 #357,324 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