mèresvsmurosWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,253
“mères” frequency rank
#26,452
“muros” frequency rank
30705
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mères muros
Definition Pluriel de mère. Murs.

Where the eye mixes mères and muros

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

5 ch
mères
5 ch
muros

Why the eye confuses mères with muros

A purely visual mix-up. mères (\mɛʁ\) and muros (\my.ʁos\) 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 30705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mères is recorded at frequency rank #4,253, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\. muros is at rank #26,452, tagged as anoun, pronounced \my.ʁos\.

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 30705, this pair ranks #308,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mères vs muros

Shared letters: mrs. Private to "mères": . Private to "muros": ou.

"mères" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "muros" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • murosmmuros · mruos · muors · muross · murros · murso · umros

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mères" for "muros" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɛʁ\ versus \my.ʁos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mères" or "muros"?
"mères" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,253 in our French list, against #26,452 for "muros". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "mères" and "muros" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mères" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muros" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #308,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mères" and "muros" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macros vs muros". 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 #308,493 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