modusvsmortsConfusable pair

Quick tell: modus is a noun, morts is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“modus” is a noun and “morts” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,195
“modus” frequency rank
#924
“morts” frequency rank
35119
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature modus morts
Definition Mode. Masculin pluriel de mort.

Where the eye mixes modus and morts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
modus
5 ch
morts

Look-alike desk: modus vs morts

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: modus is \mɔ.dys\ while morts is \mɔʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

modus is recorded at frequency rank #34,195, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.dys\. morts is at rank #924, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɔʁ\.

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 35119, this pair ranks #279,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of modus vs morts

Shared letters: mos. Private to "modus": du. Private to "morts": rt.

"modus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "morts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • modusmdous · mmodus · moddus · modsu · moduss · mouds · omdus
  • mortsmmorts · morrts · morst · mortss · mortts · motrs · mrots · omrts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "modus" and "morts" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "modus" is a noun and "morts" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "modus" or "morts"?
"morts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #924 in our French list, against #34,195 for "modus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "modus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "morts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #279,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "modus" and "morts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "modus 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 #279,035 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