moruevsmouleConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#22,338
“morue” frequency rank
#9,699
“moule” frequency rank
32037
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature morue moule
Definition Poisson de mer du genre Gadus. Mollusque bivalve, comestible, dont la coquille est de forme oblongue.

Where the eye mixes morue and moule

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
morue
5 ch
moule

Look-alike desk: morue vs moule

A purely visual mix-up. morue (\mɔ.ʁy\) and moule (\mul\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32037, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

morue is recorded at frequency rank #22,338, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.ʁy\. moule is at rank #9,699, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mul\.

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 32037, this pair ranks #299,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of morue vs moule

Shared letters: emou. Private to "morue": r. Private to "moule": l.

"morue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "moule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moruemmorue · moreu · morrue · moure · mroue · omrue
  • moulemmoule · molue · mouel · moulle · muole · omule

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "morue" and "moule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɔ.ʁy\ versus \mul\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "morue" or "moule"?
"moule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,699 in our French list, against #22,338 for "morue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "morue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #299,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "morue" and "moule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moquée vs morue". 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 #299,958 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