massevsmouseTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,528
“masse” frequency rank
#31,143
“mouse” frequency rank
32671
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature masse mouse
Definition Amas de plusieurs parties qui font corps ensemble. Souris.

Where the eye mixes masse and mouse

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

5 ch
masse
5 ch
mouse

Visual trap between masse and mouse

A purely visual mix-up. masse (\mas\) and mouse (\maʊs\) 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 32671, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

masse is recorded at frequency rank #1,528, classified as anoun, pronounced \mas\. mouse is at rank #31,143, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʊs\.

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 32671, this pair ranks #295,733 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of masse vs mouse

Shared letters: ems. Private to "masse": a. Private to "mouse": ou.

"masse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mouse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • masseamsse · mase · mases · mmasse · msase
  • mousemmouse · mosue · moues · muose · omuse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "masse" and "mouse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mas\ versus \maʊs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "masse" or "mouse"?
"masse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,528 in our French list, against #31,143 for "mouse". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "masse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mouse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #295,733 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "masse" and "mouse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moquée vs mouse". 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 #295,733 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