MillsvsmulesConfusable pair

Quick tell: Mills is a name, mules is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Mills” is a name and “mules” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,084
“Mills” frequency rank
#29,455
“mules” frequency rank
50539
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mills mules
Definition Nom de famille. Pluriel de mule.

Letter map: Mills vs mules

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mills and mules apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Mills
5 ch
mules

Grammar separator: Mills vs mules

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Mills is aname and mulesanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50539, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mills is recorded at frequency rank #21,084, classified as aname. mules is at rank #29,455, tagged as anoun, pronounced \myl\.

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 50539, this pair ranks #161,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mills vs mules

Shared letters: lms. Private to "Mills": i. Private to "mules": eu.

"Mills" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "mules" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Millsimlls · millss · mils · milsl · mlils · mmills
  • mulesmlues · mmules · muels · muless · mulles · mulse · umles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mills" for "mules" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mills" is a name and "mules" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Mills" or "mules"?
"Mills" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,084 in our French list, against #29,455 for "mules". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "Mills" vs "mules" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mills" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mules" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #161,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mills" and "mules" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muer vs mules". 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 #161,869 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