maurevsmoueTell them apart

Quick tell: maure is a adjective, moue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maure” is an adjective and “moue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,856
“maure” frequency rank
#29,453
“moue” frequency rank
59309
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maure moue
Definition Qui concerne les Maures ou leur culture. Grimace que l’on fait en rapprochant et en allongeant les lèvres, en signe de dérision ou de mécontentement.

Where the eye mixes maure and moue

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

5 ch
maure
4 ch
moue

Visual trap between maure and moue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maure is \mɔʁ\ while moue is \mu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maure is recorded at frequency rank #29,856, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɔʁ\. moue is at rank #29,453, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mu\.

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 59309, this pair ranks #103,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maure vs moue

Shared letters: emu. Private to "maure": ar. Private to "moue": o.

"maure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "moue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maureamure · marue · mauer · maurre · mmaure · muare
  • mouemmoue · moeu · muoe · omue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maure" for "moue" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maure" is an adjective and "moue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "maure" vs "moue" - which ranks higher?
"moue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,453 in our French list, against #29,856 for "maure". 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 "maure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maure" and "moue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moue vs mud". 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 #103,888 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