Which to use
“motive” is a verb and “move” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,841
- “motive” frequency rank
- #21,699
- “move” frequency rank
- 35540
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | motive | move |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de motiver. | Mouvement, geste, action, acte. |
Where the eye mixes motive and move
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. motive runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against move's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: motive vs move
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: motive is \mɔ.tiv\ while move is \muːv\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
motive is recorded at frequency rank #13,841, classified as averb, pronounced \mɔ.tiv\. move is at rank #21,699, tagged as anoun, pronounced \muːv\.
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 35540, this pair ranks #275,998 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of motive vs move
Shared letters: emov. Private to "motive": it. Private to "move": -.
"motive" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "move" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "motive" and "move" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "motive" or "move" show up more?
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 "motive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "move" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #275,998 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "motive" and "move" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moire vs move". 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 #275,998 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.