motionsvsmutinsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: motions is a noun, mutins is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“motions” is a noun and “mutins” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,452
“motions” frequency rank
#44,592
“mutins” frequency rank
74044
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature motions mutins
Definition Pluriel de motion. Masculin pluriel de mutin.

Where the eye mixes motions and mutins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. motions runs 7 letters (CVCVVCC) against mutins's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
motions
6 ch
mutins

Visual trap between motions and mutins

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: motions is \mɔ.sjɔ̃\ while mutins is \my.tɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74044, 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\. mutins is at rank #44,592, tagged as anadj, pronounced \my.tɛ̃\.

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 74044, this pair ranks #38,442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of motions vs mutins

Shared letters: imnst. Private to "motions": o. Private to "mutins": u.

"motions" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC  ·  "mutins" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • motions ← mmotions · moitons · motinos · motionns · motionss · motiosn · motoins · mottions
  • mutins ← mmutins · mtuins · muitns · mutinns · mutinss · mutisn · mutnis · muttins

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "motions" and "mutins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "motions" is a noun and "mutins" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "motions" or "mutins"?
"motions" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,452 in our French list, against #44,592 for "mutins". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "motions" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mutins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "motions" and "mutins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mougins vs mutins". 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 #38,442 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