mlevsmoaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,557
“mle” frequency rank
#45,173
“moa” frequency rank
88730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mle moa
Definition Abréviation de matricule. Une des espèces d'oiseaux terrestres (ratites) géants (jusqu'à trois mètres de haut), incapables de voler, originaires de Nouvelle-Zélande, éteintes après l'arrivée des ancêtres des Maori.

Letter map: mle vs moa

Shared letters muted; letters that set mle and moa apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. mle (CCV) and moa (CVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
mle
3 ch
moa

Pair insight - mle / moa

mle and moa are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mle is recorded at frequency rank #43,557, classified as anoun. moa is at rank #45,173, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.a\.

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 88730, this pair ranks #6,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mle vs moa

Shared letters: m. Private to "mle": el. Private to "moa": ao.

"mle" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "moa" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mle" for "moa" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "mle" vs "moa" - which ranks higher?
"mle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,557 in our French list, against #45,173 for "moa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "mle" vs "moa" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mle" and "moa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moa vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #6,602 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