mortvsMRTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#187
“mort” frequency rank
#2,434
“MR” frequency rank
2621
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mort MR
Definition Arrêt définitif des fonctions vitales (assimilation de nutriments, respiration, fonctionnement du système nerveux central). Mouvement Réformateur, parti politique belge francophone de droite.

Where the eye mixes mort and MR

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mort
2 ch
MR

Why the eye confuses mort with MR

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mort is \mɔʁ\ while MR is \ɛ.m‿ɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mort is recorded at frequency rank #187, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁ\. MR is at rank #2,434, tagged as aname, pronounced \ɛ.m‿ɛʁ\.

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 2621, this pair ranks #435,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mort vs MR

Shared letters: mr. Private to "mort": ot. Private to "MR": -.

"mort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "MR" · 2 letters · shape CC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mortmmort · morrt · mortt · motr · mrot · omrt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mort" for "MR" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mort" is a noun and "MR" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "mort" or "MR" show up more?
"mort" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #187 in our French list, against #2,434 for "MR". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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 "MR" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #435,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mort" and "MR" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "MR vs MWh". 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 #435,789 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