mottesvsmythesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,469
“mottes” frequency rank
#11,810
“mythes” frequency rank
59279
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mottes mythes
Definition Pluriel de motte. Pluriel de mythe.

Where the eye mixes mottes and mythes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mottes and mythes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
mottes
6 ch
mythes

Visual trap between mottes and mythes

A purely visual mix-up. mottes (\mɔt\) and mythes (\mit\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59279, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mottes is recorded at frequency rank #47,469, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔt\. mythes is at rank #11,810, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mit\.

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 59279, this pair ranks #104,060 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mottes vs mythes

Shared letters: emst. Private to "mottes": o. Private to "mythes": hy.

"mottes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mythes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mottes ← mmottes · motes · motets · mottess · mottse · mtotes · omttes
  • mythes ← mmythes · mtyhes · myhtes · mytehs · mythess · mythhes · mythse · mytthes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mottes" and "mythes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɔt\ versus \mit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mottes" vs "mythes" - which ranks higher?
"mythes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,810 in our French list, against #47,469 for "mottes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mottes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mythes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,060 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mottes" and "mythes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mottes vs muettes". 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 #104,060 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