moquervsmorueWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: moquer is a verb, morue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“moquer” is a verb and “morue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,351
“moquer” frequency rank
#22,338
“morue” frequency rank
31689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moquer morue
Definition Se railler de quelqu’un ou de quelque chose, en rire, en faire un sujet de plaisanterie ou de dérision. Poisson de mer du genre Gadus.

Where the eye mixes moquer and morue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
moquer
5 ch
morue

Why the eye confuses moquer with morue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moquer is \mɔ.ke\ while morue is \mɔ.ʁy\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moquer is recorded at frequency rank #9,351, classified as averb, pronounced \mɔ.ke\. morue is at rank #22,338, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.ʁy\.

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 31689, this pair ranks #302,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of moquer vs morue

Shared letters: emoru. Private to "moquer": q. Private to "morue": -.

"moquer" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "morue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moquermmoquer · moqeur · moqquer · moquerr · moqure · mouqer · mqouer · omquer
  • moruemmorue · moreu · morrue · moure · mroue · omrue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "moquer" and "morue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moquer" is a verb and "morue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "moquer" or "morue"?
"moquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,351 in our French list, against #22,338 for "morue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "moquer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "morue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #302,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moquer" and "morue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moquée vs morue". 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 #302,199 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