motionsvsmotosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,452
“motions” frequency rank
#13,010
“motos” frequency rank
42462
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature motions motos
Definition Pluriel de motion. Pluriel de moto.

Where the eye mixes motions and motos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. motions runs 7 letters (CVCVVCC) against motos's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
motions
5 ch
motos

Visual trap between motions and motos

A purely visual mix-up. motions (\mɔ.sjɔ̃\) and motos (\mo.to\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42462, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

motions is recorded at frequency rank #29,452, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.sjɔ̃\. motos is at rank #13,010, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mo.to\.

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 42462, this pair ranks #225,436 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of motions vs motos

Shared letters: most. Private to "motions": in. Private to "motos": -.

"motions" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC  ·  "motos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • motions ← mmotions · moitons · motinos · motionns · motionss · motiosn · motoins · mottions
  • motos ← mmotos · moots · motoss · motso · mottos · mtoos · omtos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "motions" and "motos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɔ.sjɔ̃\ versus \mo.to\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "motions" or "motos"?
"motos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,010 in our French list, against #29,452 for "motions". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "motions" and "motos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "motions" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "motos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #225,436 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "motions" and "motos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "montons vs motions". 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 #225,436 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