Which to use
“mode” and “môme” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #585
- “mode” frequency rank
- #14,097
- “môme” frequency rank
- 14682
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mode | môme |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Manière de voir ou d’agir ; fantaisie. | Petit garçon, petite fille. |
Where the eye mixes mode and môme
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mode and môme follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses mode with môme
A purely visual mix-up. mode (\mɔd\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14682, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mode is recorded at frequency rank #585, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔd\. 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 14682, this pair ranks #395,638 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mode vs môme
Shared letters: em. Private to "mode": do. Private to "môme": ô.
"mode" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "môme" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mode ← mdoe · mmode · modde · moed · omde
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mode" and "môme" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "mode" or "môme" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mode" 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 #395,638 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mode" and "môme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "memo vs môme". 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 #395,638 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.