moirevsmoitesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#48,051
“moire” frequency rank
#40,873
“moites” frequency rank
88924
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moire moites
Definition 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. Pluriel de moite.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set moire and moites apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
moire
6 ch
moites

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moire is \mwaʁ\ while moites is \mwat\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moire is recorded at frequency rank #48,051, classified as anoun, pronounced \mwaʁ\. moites is at rank #40,873, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mwat\.

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 88924, this pair ranks #6,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of moire vs moites

Shared letters: eimo. Private to "moire": r. Private to "moites": st.

"moire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "moites" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moiremiore · mmoire · moier · moirre · morie · omire
  • moitesmiotes · mmoites · moiets · moitess · moitse · moittes · moties · omites

Frequency comparison

moire#48,051
moites#40,873

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "moire" and "moites" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moire" is a noun and "moites" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "moire" or "moites"?
"moites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,873 in our French list, against #48,051 for "moire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering moire vs moites

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “moire”; for an adjective, it's “moites”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “moire” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list