moinesvsmondesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,087
“moines” frequency rank
#6,320
“mondes” frequency rank
13407
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moines mondes
Definition Pluriel de moine. Pluriel de monde.

Where the eye mixes moines and mondes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. moines (CVVCVC) and mondes (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
moines
6 ch
mondes

Visual trap between moines and mondes

A purely visual mix-up. moines (\mwan\) and mondes (\mɔ̃d\) 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 13407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moines is recorded at frequency rank #7,087, classified as anoun, pronounced \mwan\. mondes is at rank #6,320, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ̃d\.

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 13407, this pair ranks #401,151 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of moines vs mondes

Shared letters: emnos. Private to "moines": i. Private to "mondes": d.

"moines" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "mondes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moinesmiones · mmoines · moiens · moiness · moinnes · moinse · monies · omines
  • mondesmmondes · mnodes · modnes · monddes · mondess · mondse · moneds · monndes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "moines" and "mondes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mwan\ versus \mɔ̃d\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "moines" or "mondes"?
"mondes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,320 in our French list, against #7,087 for "moines". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "moines" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mondes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,151 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moines" and "mondes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mondes vs mondo". 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 #401,151 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