morduevsmoueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,238
“mordue” frequency rank
#29,453
“moue” frequency rank
78691
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mordue moue
Definition Passionnée ; fan. Grimace que l’on fait en rapprochant et en allongeant les lèvres, en signe de dérision ou de mécontentement.

Where the eye mixes mordue and moue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mordue runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against moue's 4 (CVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mordue
4 ch
moue

Look-alike desk: mordue vs moue

A purely visual mix-up. mordue (\mɔʁ.dy\) and moue (\mu\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78691, 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\. moue is at rank #29,453, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mu\.

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 78691, this pair ranks #25,130 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mordue vs moue

Shared letters: emou. Private to "mordue": dr. Private to "moue": -.

"mordue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "moue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • morduemmordue · modrue · morddue · mordeu · morrdue · morude · mrodue · omrdue
  • mouemmoue · moeu · muoe · omue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mordue" for "moue" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɔʁ.dy\ versus \mu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mordue" vs "moue" - which ranks higher?
"moue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,453 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 "moue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,130 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mordue" and "moue" 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 #25,130 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