mollovsmoultWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,351
“mollo” frequency rank
#22,008
“moult” frequency rank
55359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mollo moult
Definition Doucement, sans hâte ou sans brusquerie. et ou Beaucoup. Note d’usage : Attaché à un verbe.

Where the eye mixes mollo and moult

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

5 ch
mollo
5 ch
moult

Look-alike desk: mollo vs moult

A purely visual mix-up. mollo (\mɔ.lo\) and moult (\mu\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mollo is recorded at frequency rank #33,351, classified as anadv, pronounced \mɔ.lo\. moult is at rank #22,008, tagged as anadv, pronounced \mu\.

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 55359, this pair ranks #127,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mollo vs moult

Shared letters: lmo. Private to "mollo": -. Private to "moult": tu.

"mollo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "moult" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mollomlolo · mmollo · molo · molol · omllo
  • moultmmoult · molut · moullt · moultt · moutl · muolt · omult

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mollo" for "moult" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɔ.lo\ versus \mu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mollo" or "moult"?
"moult" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,008 in our French list, against #33,351 for "mollo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mollo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moult" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mollo" and "moult" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mollo vs mondo". 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 #127,958 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