mesurevsmorsureWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#520
“mesure” frequency rank
#21,089
“morsure” frequency rank
21609
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mesure morsure
Definition Dimension. Action de mordre.

Where the eye mixes mesure and morsure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mesure runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against morsure's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mesure
7 ch
morsure

Visual trap between mesure and morsure

A purely visual mix-up. mesure (\mə.zyʁ\) and morsure (\mɔʁ.syʁ\) 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 21609, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mesure is recorded at frequency rank #520, classified as anoun, pronounced \mə.zyʁ\. morsure is at rank #21,089, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁ.syʁ\.

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 21609, this pair ranks #362,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mesure vs morsure

Shared letters: emrsu. Private to "mesure": -. Private to "morsure": o.

"mesure" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "morsure" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mesure ← emsure · mesrue · messure · mesuer · mesurre · meusre · mmesure · mseure
  • morsure ← mmorsure · morrsure · morsrue · morssure · morsuer · morsurre · morusre · mosrure

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mesure" for "morsure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mə.zyʁ\ versus \mɔʁ.syʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mesure" vs "morsure" - which ranks higher?
"mesure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #520 in our French list, against #21,089 for "morsure". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "mesure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "morsure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #362,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mesure" and "morsure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mordue vs morsure". 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 #362,287 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