motusvsmusWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: motus is a intj, mus is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“motus” is an intj and “mus” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,186
“motus” frequency rank
#26,805
“mus” frequency rank
71991
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature motus mus
Definition Interjection pour demander à quelqu’un de ne rien dire. Silence ! Jeu de cartes populaire d'origine basque.

Where the eye mixes motus and mus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. motus runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against mus's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
motus
3 ch
mus

Look-alike desk: motus vs mus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: motus is \mɔ.tys\ while mus is \muʃ\. 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 (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71991, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

motus is recorded at frequency rank #45,186, classified as anintj, pronounced \mɔ.tys\. mus is at rank #26,805, tagged as anoun, pronounced \muʃ\.

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 71991, this pair ranks #45,583 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of motus vs mus

Shared letters: msu. Private to "motus": ot. Private to "mus": -.

"motus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • motus ← mmotus · motsu · mottus · motuss · mouts · mtous · omtus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "motus" and "mus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "motus" is an intj and "mus" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "motus" vs "mus" - which ranks higher?
"mus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,805 in our French list, against #45,186 for "motus". 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 "motus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,583 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "motus" and "mus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moqués vs motus". 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 #45,583 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