morduvsmordueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mordu is a adjective, mordue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mordu” is an adjective and “mordue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,196
“mordu” frequency rank
#49,238
“mordue” frequency rank
66434
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mordu mordue
Definition Qui a été entamé par les dents. Passionnée ; fan.

Same sound, different letters: mordu vs mordue

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. mordu runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against mordue's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
mordu
6 ch
mordue

Ear matches; page differs - mordu and mordue

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: mordu and mordue carry the same recorded pronunciation, \mɔʁ.dy\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mordu” sits inside “mordue”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66434, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mordu is recorded at frequency rank #17,196, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɔʁ.dy\. mordue is at rank #49,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁ.dy\.

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 66434, this pair ranks #67,847 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mordu vs mordue

Shared letters: dmoru. Private to "mordu": -. Private to "mordue": e.

"mordu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mordue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mordu ← mmordu · modru · morddu · morrdu · morud · mrodu · omrdu
  • mordue ← mmordue · modrue · morddue · mordeu · morrdue · morude · mrodue · omrdue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mordu" for "mordue" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mordu" is an adjective and "mordue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mordu" vs "mordue" - which ranks higher?
"mordu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,196 in our French list, against #49,238 for "mordue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mordu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mordue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,847 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mordu" and "mordue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mordor 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 #67,847 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