moavsmômeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,173
“moa” frequency rank
#14,097
“môme” frequency rank
59270
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moa môme
Definition 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. Petit garçon, petite fille.

Where the eye mixes moa and môme

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

3 ch
moa
4 ch
môme

Look-alike desk: moa vs môme

A purely visual mix-up. moa (\mɔ.a\) and môme (\mom\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moa is recorded at frequency rank #45,173, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.a\. môme is at rank #14,097, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mom\.

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 59270, this pair ranks #104,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of moa vs môme

Shared letters: m. Private to "moa": ao. Private to "môme": .

"moa" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "môme" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "moa" for "môme" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɔ.a\ versus \mom\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "moa" vs "môme" - which ranks higher?
"môme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,097 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "moa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "môme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moa" and "môme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moa vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #104,119 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