Which to use
“moins” is an adverb and “moire” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #118
- “moins” frequency rank
- #48,051
- “moire” frequency rank
- 48169
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | moins | moire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Comparatif de peu. Servant à marquer l’infériorité d’une personne ou d’une chose, comparée à une autre ou à elle-même sous quelque rapport de qualité, de quantité, d’action, etc. | Apprêt que reçoivent, par un calandrage spécifique, certaines étoffes de soie, de laine, de coton ou de lin, et qui leur communique un éclat changeant, une apparence ondée et chatoyante. |
Where the eye mixes moins and moire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. moins (CVVCC) and moire (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between moins and moire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moins is \mwɛ̃\ while moire is \mwaʁ\. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48169, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
moins is recorded at frequency rank #118, classified as anadv, pronounced \mwɛ̃\. moire is at rank #48,051, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mwaʁ\.
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 48169, this pair ranks #181,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of moins vs moire
Shared letters: imo. Private to "moins": ns. Private to "moire": er.
"moins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "moire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "moins" and "moire" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "moins" vs "moire" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "moins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "moire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #181,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "moins" and "moire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moire vs moisie". 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 #181,087 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.