mettesvsmoitesTell them apart

Quick tell: mettes is a noun, moites is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mettes” is a noun and “moites” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,626
“mettes” frequency rank
#40,873
“moites” frequency rank
75499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mettes moites
Definition Pluriel de mette. Pluriel de moite.

Where the eye mixes mettes and moites

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
mettes
6 ch
moites

Look-alike desk: mettes vs moites

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mettes is \mɛt\ while moites is \mwat\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mettes is recorded at frequency rank #34,626, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛt\. moites is at rank #40,873, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mwat\.

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 75499, this pair ranks #33,891 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mettes vs moites

Shared letters: emst. Private to "mettes": -. Private to "moites": io.

"mettes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "moites" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mettesemttes · metes · metets · mettess · mettse · mmettes · mtetes
  • moitesmiotes · mmoites · moiets · moitess · moitse · moittes · moties · omites

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mettes" for "moites" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mettes" is a noun and "moites" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "mettes" or "moites" show up more?
"mettes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,626 in our French list, against #40,873 for "moites". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mettes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,891 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mettes" and "moites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moites vs moqués". 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 #33,891 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