moldusvsmotusConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#43,561
“moldus” frequency rank
#45,186
“motus” frequency rank
88747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moldus motus
Definition Pluriel de moldu. Interjection pour demander à quelqu’un de ne rien dire. Silence !

Where the eye mixes moldus and motus

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

6 ch
moldus
5 ch
motus

Why the eye confuses moldus with motus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moldus is \mɔl.dy\ while motus is \mɔ.tys\. 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 intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88747, 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\. motus is at rank #45,186, tagged as anintj, pronounced \mɔ.tys\.

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 88747, this pair ranks #6,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of moldus vs motus

Shared letters: mosu. Private to "moldus": dl. Private to "motus": t.

"moldus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "motus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moldus ← mlodus · mmoldus · modlus · molddus · moldsu · molduss · molldus · moluds
  • motus ← mmotus · motsu · mottus · motuss · mouts · mtous · omtus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "moldus" for "motus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moldus" is a noun and "motus" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "moldus" or "motus" show up more?
"moldus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,561 in our French list, against #45,186 for "motus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "moldus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "motus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moldus" and "motus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moqués vs motus". 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 #6,573 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