moldusvsmorduConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#43,561
“moldus” frequency rank
#17,196
“mordu” frequency rank
60757
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moldus mordu
Definition Pluriel de moldu. Qui a été entamé par les dents.

Where the eye mixes moldus and mordu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. moldus runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against mordu's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
moldus
5 ch
mordu

Why the eye confuses moldus with mordu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moldus is \mɔl.dy\ while mordu is \mɔʁ.dy\. 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 60757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moldus is recorded at frequency rank #43,561, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔl.dy\. mordu is at rank #17,196, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɔʁ.dy\.

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 60757, this pair ranks #95,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of moldus vs mordu

Shared letters: dmou. Private to "moldus": ls. Private to "mordu": r.

"moldus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mordu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moldus ← mlodus · mmoldus · modlus · molddus · moldsu · molduss · molldus · moluds
  • mordu ← mmordu · modru · morddu · morrdu · morud · mrodu · omrdu

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "moldus" for "mordu" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moldus" is a noun and "mordu" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "moldus" or "mordu"?
"mordu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,196 in our French list, against #43,561 for "moldus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "moldus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mordu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #95,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moldus" and "mordu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moldus 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 #95,920 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