mitvsmutéWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mit is a verb, muté is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mit” is a verb and “muté” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,474
“mit” frequency rank
#24,292
“muté” frequency rank
27766
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mit muté
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de mettre. Se dit d’un vin dont la fermentation a été stoppée par l’ajout d’alcool ou d'acide sulfureux lui permettant ainsi de garder des sucres résiduels.

Where the eye mixes mit and muté

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
mit
4 ch
muté

Visual trap between mit and muté

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mit is \mi\ while muté is \my.te\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27766, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mit is recorded at frequency rank #3,474, classified as averb, pronounced \mi\. muté is at rank #24,292, tagged as anadj, pronounced \my.te\.

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 27766, this pair ranks #326,902 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mit vs muté

Shared letters: mt. Private to "mit": i. Private to "muté": .

"mit" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "muté" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mit" and "muté" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mit" is a verb and "muté" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mit" or "muté"?
"mit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,474 in our French list, against #24,292 for "muté". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #326,902 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mit" and "muté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mud vs muté". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #326,902 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