morduevsmorsureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,238
“mordue” frequency rank
#21,089
“morsure” frequency rank
70327
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mordue morsure
Definition Passionnée ; fan. Action de mordre.

Where the eye mixes mordue and morsure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mordue runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against morsure's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mordue
7 ch
morsure

Why the eye confuses mordue with morsure

A purely visual mix-up. mordue (\mɔʁ.dy\) and morsure (\mɔʁ.syʁ\) 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 70327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mordue is recorded at frequency rank #49,238, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁ.dy\. morsure is at rank #21,089, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁ.syʁ\.

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 70327, this pair ranks #51,730 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mordue vs morsure

Shared letters: emoru. Private to "mordue": d. Private to "morsure": s.

"mordue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "morsure" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mordue ← mmordue · modrue · morddue · mordeu · morrdue · morude · mrodue · omrdue
  • morsure ← mmorsure · morrsure · morsrue · morssure · morsuer · morsurre · morusre · mosrure

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mordue" and "morsure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɔʁ.dy\ versus \mɔʁ.syʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "mordue" or "morsure" show up more?
"morsure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,089 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mordue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "morsure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,730 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mordue" and "morsure" 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 #51,730 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