mauxvsmueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,412
“maux” frequency rank
#19,916
“mue” frequency rank
26328
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maux mue
Definition Pluriel de mal. Changement de poil, de plumes, de peau, de cornes, etc., qui arrive aux animaux, ou tous les ans, ou à certaines époques de leur vie.

Where the eye mixes maux and mue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
maux
3 ch
mue

Look-alike desk: maux vs mue

A purely visual mix-up. maux (\mo\) and mue (\my\) 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 26328, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maux is recorded at frequency rank #6,412, classified as anoun, pronounced \mo\. mue is at rank #19,916, tagged as anoun, pronounced \my\.

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 26328, this pair ranks #335,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maux vs mue

Shared letters: mu. Private to "maux": ax. Private to "mue": e.

"maux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mue" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mauxamux · mauxx · maxu · mmaux · muax

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maux" for "mue" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mo\ versus \my\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "maux" vs "mue" - which ranks higher?
"maux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,412 in our French list, against #19,916 for "mue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maux" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #335,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maux" and "mue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mue vs MWh". 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 #335,690 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