MmevsmobWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,067
“Mme” frequency rank
#25,737
“mob” frequency rank
26804
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mme mob
Definition Madame (comme titre). Populace anglaise.

Where the eye mixes Mme and mob

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
Mme
3 ch
mob

Why the eye confuses Mme with mob

A purely visual mix-up. Mme (\ma.dam\) and mob (\mɔb\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mme is recorded at frequency rank #1,067, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.dam\. mob is at rank #25,737, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔb\.

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 26804, this pair ranks #332,767 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mme vs mob

Shared letters: m. Private to "Mme": e. Private to "mob": bo.

"Mme" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "mob" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Mme" and "mob" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ma.dam\ versus \mɔb\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Mme" vs "mob" - which ranks higher?
"Mme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,067 in our French list, against #25,737 for "mob". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Mme" and "mob" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mob" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #332,767 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mme" and "mob" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mob vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #332,767 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