modevsmordueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#585
“mode” frequency rank
#49,238
“mordue” frequency rank
49823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mode mordue
Definition Manière de voir ou d’agir ; fantaisie. Passionnée ; fan.

Where the eye mixes mode and mordue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mode runs 4 letters (CVCV) against mordue's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mode
6 ch
mordue

Look-alike desk: mode vs mordue

A purely visual mix-up. mode (\mɔd\) and mordue (\mɔʁ.dy\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mode is recorded at frequency rank #585, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔd\. mordue is at rank #49,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁ.dy\.

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 49823, this pair ranks #167,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mode vs mordue

Shared letters: demo. Private to "mode": -. Private to "mordue": ru.

"mode" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mordue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mode ← mdoe · mmode · modde · moed · omde
  • mordue ← mmordue · modrue · morddue · mordeu · morrdue · morude · mrodue · omrdue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mode" for "mordue" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɔd\ versus \mɔʁ.dy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mode" vs "mordue" - which ranks higher?
"mode" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #585 in our French list, against #49,238 for "mordue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mode" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mordue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #167,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mode" and "mordue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mordor vs mordue". 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 #167,602 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