mollessevsmolletsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#48,053
“mollesse” frequency rank
#29,045
“mollets” frequency rank
77098
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mollesse mollets
Definition État de ce qui est mou. Masculin pluriel de mollet.

Where the eye mixes mollesse and mollets

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
mollesse
7 ch
mollets

Why the eye confuses mollesse with mollets

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mollesse is \mɔ.lɛs\ while mollets is \mɔ.lɛ\. 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 77098, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mollesse is recorded at frequency rank #48,053, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.lɛs\. mollets is at rank #29,045, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɔ.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 77098, this pair ranks #29,325 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mollesse vs mollets

Shared letters: elmos. Private to "mollesse": -. Private to "mollets": t.

"mollesse" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "mollets" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mollessemlolesse · mmollesse · molelsse · molesse · mollese · molleses · mollsese · omllesse
  • molletsmlolets · mmollets · molelts · molets · mollest · molletss · molletts · molltes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mollesse" for "mollets" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mollesse" is a noun and "mollets" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mollesse" vs "mollets" - which ranks higher?
"mollets" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,045 in our French list, against #48,053 for "mollesse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mollesse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mollets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,325 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mollesse" and "mollets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malles vs mollets". 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 #29,325 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