Which to use
“mot” and “motif” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #493
- “mot” frequency rank
- #3,548
- “motif” frequency rank
- 4041
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mot | motif |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Succession de sons dans les langues parlées, ou de signes dans les langues des signes ou écrites, qui a un sens propre. | Ce qui pousse à agir, en parlant de tout élément conscient considéré comme entrant dans la détermination d’un acte volontaire. |
Where the eye mixes mot and motif
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mot vs motif
A purely visual mix-up. mot (\mo\) and motif (\mɔ.tif\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “mot” sits inside “motif”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4041, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mot is recorded at frequency rank #493, classified as anoun, pronounced \mo\. motif is at rank #3,548, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.tif\.
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 4041, this pair ranks #432,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mot vs motif
Shared letters: mot. Private to "mot": -. Private to "motif": fi.
"mot" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "motif" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- motif ← mmotif · moitf · motfi · motiff · mottif · mtoif · omtif
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mot" and "motif" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "mot" or "motif" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "motif" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #432,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mot" and "motif" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "modif vs motif". 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 #432,601 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.