Which to use
“mess” is a noun and “mos” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,732
- “mess” frequency rank
- #32,917
- “mos” frequency rank
- 58649
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mess | mos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lieu où des officiers ou des sous-officiers prennent leurs repas ensemble. | Ne … pas : négation à l'impératif, au subjonctif, après në « si » et duke « en ». |
Where the eye mixes mess and mos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mess vs mos
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mess is \mɛs\ while mos is \mos\. 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 (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mess is recorded at frequency rank #25,732, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛs\. mos is at rank #32,917, tagged as anadv, pronounced \mos\.
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 58649, this pair ranks #107,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mess vs mos
Shared letters: ms. Private to "mess": e. Private to "mos": o.
"mess" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "mos" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mess ← emss · mmess · mses
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mess" and "mos" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "mess" vs "mos" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mess" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #107,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mess" and "mos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mos 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 #107,781 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.