mosaïquevsmoustiqueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,515
“mosaïque” frequency rank
#17,769
“moustique” frequency rank
32284
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mosaïque moustique
Definition Assemblage de morceaux de faïence représentant un motif artistique. Insecte diptère de la famille des culicidés dont la femelle pique les animaux dont l’humain et leur pompe du sang.

Where the eye mixes mosaïque and moustique

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. mosaïque runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVV) against moustique's 9 (CVVCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
mosaïque
9 ch
moustique

Visual trap between mosaïque and moustique

A purely visual mix-up. mosaïque (\mɔ.za.ik\) and moustique (\mus.tik\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32284, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mosaïque is recorded at frequency rank #14,515, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.za.ik\. moustique is at rank #17,769, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mus.tik\.

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 32284, this pair ranks #298,248 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mosaïque vs moustique

Shared letters: emoqsu. Private to "mosaïque": aï. Private to "moustique": it.

"mosaïque" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "moustique" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moustique ← mmoustique · mosutique · mousitque · mousstique · moustiqeu · moustiqque · moustiuqe · moustqiue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mosaïque" for "moustique" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɔ.za.ik\ versus \mus.tik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mosaïque" vs "moustique" - which ranks higher?
"mosaïque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,515 in our French list, against #17,769 for "moustique". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "mosaïque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moustique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #298,248 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mosaïque" and "moustique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "monastique vs moustique". 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 #298,248 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