Which to use
“moire” and “mouse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,051
- “moire” frequency rank
- #31,143
- “mouse” frequency rank
- 79194
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | moire | mouse |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Souris. |
Where the eye mixes moire and mouse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. moire and mouse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses moire with mouse
A purely visual mix-up. moire (\mwaʁ\) and mouse (\maʊs\) 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 79194, 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\. mouse is at rank #31,143, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʊs\.
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 79194, this pair ranks #23,886 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of moire vs mouse
Shared letters: emo. Private to "moire": ir. Private to "mouse": su.
"moire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "mouse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "moire" and "mouse" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "moire" or "mouse"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "moire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mouse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #23,886 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "moire" and "mouse" 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 #23,886 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.