Which to use
“mole” is a noun and “moulu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,923
- “mole” frequency rank
- #46,903
- “moulu” frequency rank
- 85826
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mole | moulu |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Broyé, pulvérisé dans un moulin |
Where the eye mixes mole and moulu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mole runs 4 letters (CVCV) against moulu's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mole and moulu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mole is \mɔl\ while moulu is \mu.ly\. 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 85826, 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\. moulu is at rank #46,903, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mu.ly\.
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 85826, this pair ranks #10,691 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mole vs moulu
Shared letters: lmo. Private to "mole": e. Private to "moulu": u.
"mole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "moulu" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mole" for "moulu" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mole" or "moulu"?
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 "mole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "moulu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #10,691 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mole" and "moulu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moulu vs Moura". 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 #10,691 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.