MllevsmolletConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#9,874
“Mlle” frequency rank
#19,603
“mollet” frequency rank
29477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mlle mollet
Definition Mademoiselle (titre) Mou, faible, sans force.

Where the eye mixes Mlle and mollet

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

4 ch
Mlle
6 ch
mollet

Look-alike desk: Mlle vs mollet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mlle is \mad.mwa.zɛl\ while mollet is \mɔ.lɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mlle is recorded at frequency rank #9,874, classified as anoun, pronounced \mad.mwa.zɛl\. mollet is at rank #19,603, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɔ.lɛ\.

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 29477, this pair ranks #316,432 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mlle vs mollet

Shared letters: elm. Private to "Mlle": -. Private to "mollet": ot.

"Mlle" · 4 letters · shape CCCV  ·  "mollet" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mllelmle · mlel · mmlle
  • molletmlolet · mmollet · molelt · molet · mollett · mollte · omllet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mlle" for "mollet" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mlle" is a noun and "mollet" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Mlle" or "mollet" show up more?
"Mlle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,874 in our French list, against #19,603 for "mollet". 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 "Mlle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mollet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #316,432 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mlle" and "mollet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malles vs mollet". 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 #316,432 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