mayeurvsmoyeuWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,457
“mayeur” frequency rank
#46,905
“moyeu” frequency rank
89362
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mayeur moyeu
Definition Officier municipal. Milieu de la roue (la roue peut être située sur une voiture, un vélo, etc.) ; gros morceau de bois tourné ou de métal, où s’emboîtent les rais, et dans le creux duquel entre l’essieu.

Where the eye mixes mayeur and moyeu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mayeur runs 6 letters (CVVVVC) against moyeu's 5 (CVVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mayeur
5 ch
moyeu

Why the eye confuses mayeur with moyeu

A purely visual mix-up. mayeur (\ma.jœʁ\) and moyeu (\mwa.jø\) 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 89362, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mayeur is recorded at frequency rank #42,457, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.jœʁ\. moyeu is at rank #46,905, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mwa.jø\.

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 89362, this pair ranks #5,881 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mayeur vs moyeu

Shared letters: emuy. Private to "mayeur": ar. Private to "moyeu": o.

"mayeur" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC  ·  "moyeu" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mayeur ← amyeur · maeyur · mayeru · mayeurr · mayuer · mayyeur · mmayeur · myaeur
  • moyeu ← mmoyeu · moeyu · moyue · moyyeu · myoeu · omyeu

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mayeur" and "moyeu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ma.jœʁ\ versus \mwa.jø\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mayeur" or "moyeu"?
"mayeur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,457 in our French list, against #46,905 for "moyeu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mayeur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moyeu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,881 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mayeur" and "moyeu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moulu vs moyeu". 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 #5,881 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