moquettevsmouetteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,695
“moquette” frequency rank
#32,491
“mouette” frequency rank
54186
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moquette mouette
Definition Étoffe à chaîne et à trame de fil, veloutée en laine, dont on fait des tapis. Nom vernaculaire donné à plusieurs espèces d'oiseaux marins de la famille des Laridae qui inclus aussi les goélands (de plus grande taille).

Where the eye mixes moquette and mouette

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. moquette runs 8 letters (CVCVVCCV) against mouette's 7 (CVVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
moquette
7 ch
mouette

Why the eye confuses moquette with mouette

A purely visual mix-up. moquette (\mɔ.kɛt\) and mouette (\mwɛt\) 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 54186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moquette is recorded at frequency rank #21,695, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.kɛt\. mouette is at rank #32,491, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mwɛt\.

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 54186, this pair ranks #135,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of moquette vs mouette

Shared letters: emotu. Private to "moquette": q. Private to "mouette": -.

"moquette" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV  ·  "mouette" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moquettemmoquette · moqeutte · moqquette · moquete · moquetet · moqutete · mouqette · mqouette
  • mouettemmouette · moeutte · mouete · mouetet · moutete · muoette · omuette

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "moquette" for "mouette" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɔ.kɛt\ versus \mwɛt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "moquette" or "mouette"?
"moquette" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,695 in our French list, against #32,491 for "mouette". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "moquette" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mouette" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #135,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moquette" and "mouette" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mouette vs muettes". 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 #135,662 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