Which to use
“mole” and “mule” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,923
- “mole” frequency rank
- #25,051
- “mule” frequency rank
- 63974
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mole | mule |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Femelle du mulet, équidé issu du croisement d’un âne et d’une jument et le plus souvent stérile. |
Where the eye mixes mole and mule
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mole and mule follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses mole with mule
A purely visual mix-up. mole (\mɔl\) and mule (\myl\) 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 a single letter - o in “mole” becomes u in “mule”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63974, 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\. mule is at rank #25,051, tagged as anoun, pronounced \myl\.
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 63974, this pair ranks #79,295 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mole vs mule
Shared letters: elm. Private to "mole": o. Private to "mule": u.
"mole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mule" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mole" for "mule" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mole" or "mule"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mole" and "mule" 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 "mule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #79,295 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mole" and "mule" 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 #79,295 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.