mordsvsmorteTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#34,200
“mords” frequency rank
#1,877
“morte” frequency rank
36077
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mords morte
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de mordre. Femme décédée ; défunte.

Where the eye mixes mords and morte

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

5 ch
mords
5 ch
morte

Look-alike desk: mords vs morte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mords is \mɔʁ\ while morte is \mɔʁt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mords is recorded at frequency rank #34,200, classified as averb, pronounced \mɔʁ\. morte is at rank #1,877, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁt\.

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 36077, this pair ranks #272,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mords vs morte

Shared letters: mor. Private to "mords": ds. Private to "morte": et.

"mords" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "morte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mordsmmords · modrs · mordds · mordss · morrds · morsd · mrods · omrds
  • mortemmorte · morrte · mortte · motre · mrote · omrte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mords" and "morte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mords" is a verb and "morte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "mords" or "morte" show up more?
"morte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,877 in our French list, against #34,200 for "mords". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mords" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "morte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #272,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mords" and "morte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mords vs mordue". 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 #272,166 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