molevsmuletTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,923
“mole” frequency rank
#32,921
“mulet” frequency rank
71844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mole mulet
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. Équidé mâle né d’un âne et d’une jument, ou d’un cheval et d’une ânesse (on dit plus précisément dans ce cas bardot), et généralement stérile.

Where the eye mixes mole and mulet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mole runs 4 letters (CVCV) against mulet's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mole
5 ch
mulet

Look-alike desk: mole vs mulet

A purely visual mix-up. mole (\mɔl\) and mulet (\my.lɛ\) 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 71844, 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\. mulet is at rank #32,921, tagged as anoun, pronounced \my.lɛ\.

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 71844, this pair ranks #46,072 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mole vs mulet

Shared letters: elm. Private to "mole": o. Private to "mulet": tu.

"mole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mulet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mole ← mloe · mmole · moel · omle
  • mulet ← mluet · mmulet · muelt · mulett · mullet · multe · umlet

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mole" and "mulet" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɔl\ versus \my.lɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "mole" or "mulet" show up more?
"mulet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,921 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.

What to do next

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 "mulet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,072 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mole" and "mulet" 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 #46,072 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