mormonsvsmotionsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#39,905
“mormons” frequency rank
#29,452
“motions” frequency rank
69357
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mormons motions
Definition Masculin pluriel de mormon. Pluriel de motion.

Where the eye mixes mormons and motions

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

7 ch
mormons
7 ch
motions

Why the eye confuses mormons with motions

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mormons is \mɔʁ.mɔ̃\ while motions is \mɔ.sjɔ̃\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mormons is recorded at frequency rank #39,905, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɔʁ.mɔ̃\. motions is at rank #29,452, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.sjɔ̃\.

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 69357, this pair ranks #55,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mormons vs motions

Shared letters: mnos. Private to "mormons": r. Private to "motions": it.

"mormons" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "motions" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mormonsmmormons · momrons · mormmons · mormnos · mormonns · mormonss · mormosn · moromns
  • motionsmmotions · moitons · motinos · motionns · motionss · motiosn · motoins · mottions

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mormons" and "motions" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mormons" is an adjective and "motions" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "mormons" or "motions" show up more?
"motions" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,452 in our French list, against #39,905 for "mormons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mormons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "motions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mormons" and "motions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "montons vs mormons". 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 #55,440 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