molevsmollesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#38,923
“mole” frequency rank
#26,445
“molles” frequency rank
65368
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mole molles
Definition Unité de mesure de quantité de matière du Système international, dont le symbole est mol. Une mole contient autant de particules individuelles qu’il y a d’atomes dans 12 grammes de carbone 12 ; ce nombre est appelé nombre d’Avogadro, et est de l’ordre de 6,022×10²³. Féminin pluriel de mou.

Same sound, different letters: mole vs molles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. mole runs 4 letters (CVCV) against molles's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mole
6 ch
molles

Ear matches; page differs - mole and molles

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: mole and molles carry the same recorded pronunciation, \mɔl\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mole is recorded at frequency rank #38,923, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔl\. molles is at rank #26,445, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɔl\.

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 65368, this pair ranks #72,699 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mole vs molles

Shared letters: elmo. Private to "mole": -. Private to "molles": s.

"mole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "molles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mole ← mloe · mmole · moel · omle
  • molles ← mloles · mmolles · molels · moles · molless · mollse · omlles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mole" for "molles" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mole" is a noun and "molles" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mole" or "molles"?
"molles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,445 in our French list, against #38,923 for "mole". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "mole" / "molles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "molles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,699 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mole" and "molles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moire vs mole". 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 #72,699 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