Which to use
“Mère” and “moire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #292
- “Mère” frequency rank
- #48,051
- “moire” frequency rank
- 48343
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Mère | moire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom donné à la Vierge Marie. | Apprêt que reçoivent, par un calandrage spécifique, certaines étoffes de soie, de laine, de coton ou de lin, et qui leur communique un éclat changeant, une apparence ondée et chatoyante. |
Where the eye mixes Mère and moire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Mère runs 4 letters (CVCV) against moire's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses Mère with moire
A purely visual mix-up. Mère (\mɛʁ\) and moire (\mwaʁ\) 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 48343, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Mère is recorded at frequency rank #292, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\. moire is at rank #48,051, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mwaʁ\.
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 48343, this pair ranks #179,681 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Mère vs moire
Shared letters: emr. Private to "Mère": è. Private to "moire": io.
"Mère" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "moire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- moire ← miore · mmoire · moier · moirre · morie · omire
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Mère" and "moire" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "Mère" or "moire"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Mère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "moire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #179,681 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Mère" and "moire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moire vs moisie". 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 #179,681 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.