mordrevsmoudreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,429
“mordre” frequency rank
#32,919
“moudre” frequency rank
46348
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mordre moudre
Definition Serrer avec les dents de manière à entamer. Mettre en poudre au moyen d’un moulin.

Where the eye mixes mordre and moudre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mordre (CVCCCV) and moudre (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
mordre
6 ch
moudre

Visual trap between mordre and moudre

A purely visual mix-up. mordre (\mɔʁdʁ\) and moudre (\mudʁ\) 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 a single letter - r in “mordre” becomes u in “moudre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46348, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mordre is recorded at frequency rank #13,429, classified as averb, pronounced \mɔʁdʁ\. moudre is at rank #32,919, tagged as averb, pronounced \mudʁ\.

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 46348, this pair ranks #195,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mordre vs moudre

Shared letters: demor. Private to "mordre": -. Private to "moudre": u.

"mordre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "moudre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mordre ← mmordre · modrre · morddre · morder · mordrre · morrde · morrdre · mrodre
  • moudre ← mmoudre · modure · mouddre · mouder · moudrre · mourde · muodre · omudre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mordre" and "moudre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɔʁdʁ\ versus \mudʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mordre" or "moudre"?
"mordre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,429 in our French list, against #32,919 for "moudre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mordre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moudre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #195,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mordre" and "moudre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mordue vs moudre". 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 #195,702 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