modivsmotsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,175
“modi” frequency rank
#570
“mots” frequency rank
45745
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature modi mots
Definition Pluriel de modus. Pluriel de mot.

Where the eye mixes modi and mots

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
modi
4 ch
mots

Visual trap between modi and mots

A purely visual mix-up. modi (\mɔ.di\) and mots (\mo\) 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 45745, 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\. mots is at rank #570, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mo\.

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 45745, this pair ranks #200,348 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of modi vs mots

Shared letters: mo. Private to "modi": di. Private to "mots": st.

"modi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mots" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • modimdoi · mmodi · moddi · moid · omdi
  • motsmmots · motss · motts · mtos · omts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "modi" and "mots" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɔ.di\ versus \mo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "modi" vs "mots" - which ranks higher?
"mots" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #570 in our French list, against #45,175 for "modi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "modi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mots" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,348 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "modi" and "mots" 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 #200,348 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