modivsmoleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,175
“modi” frequency rank
#38,923
“mole” frequency rank
84098
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature modi mole
Definition Pluriel de modus. Unité de mesure de quantité de matière du Système international, dont le symbole est mol. Une mole contient autant de particules individuelles qu’il y a d’atomes dans 12 grammes de carbone 12 ; ce nombre est appelé nombre d’Avogadro, et est de l’ordre de 6,022×10²³.

Where the eye mixes modi and mole

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. modi and mole follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
modi
4 ch
mole

Look-alike desk: modi vs mole

A purely visual mix-up. modi (\mɔ.di\) and mole (\mɔl\) 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 84098, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

modi is recorded at frequency rank #45,175, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.di\. mole is at rank #38,923, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔl\.

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 84098, this pair ranks #13,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of modi vs mole

Shared letters: mo. Private to "modi": di. Private to "mole": el.

"modi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • modi ← mdoi · mmodi · moddi · moid · omdi
  • mole ← mloe · mmole · moel · omle

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "modi" and "mole" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɔ.di\ versus \mɔl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "modi" or "mole" show up more?
"mole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,923 in our French list, against #45,175 for "modi". 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 "modi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "modi" and "mole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "modi vs mud". 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 #13,571 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