mortvsmoyaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#187
“mort” frequency rank
#45,744
“moya” frequency rank
45931
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mort moya
Definition Arrêt définitif des fonctions vitales (assimilation de nutriments, respiration, fonctionnement du système nerveux central). Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe moyer.

Where the eye mixes mort and moya

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mort (CVCC) and moya (CVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
mort
4 ch
moya

Why the eye confuses mort with moya

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mort is \mɔʁ\ while moya is \mwa.ja\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45931, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mort is recorded at frequency rank #187, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁ\. moya is at rank #45,744, tagged as averb, pronounced \mwa.ja\.

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 45931, this pair ranks #198,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mort vs moya

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mort": rt. Private to "moya": ay.

"mort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "moya" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mort ← mmort · morrt · mortt · motr · mrot · omrt
  • moya ← mmoya · moay · moyya · myoa · omya

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mort" and "moya" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mort" is a noun and "moya" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mort" vs "moya" - which ranks higher?
"mort" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #187 in our French list, against #45,744 for "moya". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "mort" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moya" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #198,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mort" and "moya" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Monza vs moya". 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 #198,943 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