molevsmorueConfusable pair

Which to use

“mole” and “morue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,923
“mole” frequency rank
#22,338
“morue” frequency rank
61261
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mole morue
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. Poisson de mer du genre Gadus.

Where the eye mixes mole and morue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mole
5 ch
morue

Visual trap between mole and morue

A purely visual mix-up. mole (\mɔl\) and morue (\mɔ.ʁy\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61261, 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\. morue is at rank #22,338, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.ʁy\.

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 61261, this pair ranks #93,205 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mole vs morue

Shared letters: emo. Private to "mole": l. Private to "morue": ru.

"mole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "morue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • molemloe · mmole · moel · omle
  • moruemmorue · moreu · morrue · moure · mroue · omrue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mole" for "morue" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɔl\ versus \mɔ.ʁy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mole" vs "morue" - which ranks higher?
"morue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,338 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "morue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,205 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mole" and "morue" 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 #93,205 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