Which to use
“mou” and “moulu” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,739
- “mou” frequency rank
- #46,903
- “moulu” frequency rank
- 55642
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mou | moulu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui cède facilement au toucher, qui reçoit facilement l’impression des autres corps. | Broyé, pulvérisé dans un moulin |
Where the eye mixes mou and moulu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mou with moulu
A purely visual mix-up. mou (\mu\) and moulu (\mu.ly\) 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 extra letter(s) - “mou” sits inside “moulu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mou is recorded at frequency rank #8,739, classified as anadj, pronounced \mu\. moulu is at rank #46,903, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mu.ly\.
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 55642, this pair ranks #126,161 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mou vs moulu
Shared letters: mou. Private to "mou": -. Private to "moulu": l.
"mou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "moulu" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- moulu ← mmoulu · moluu · moullu · mouul · muolu · omulu
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mou" and "moulu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "mou" or "moulu" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "moulu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #126,161 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mou" and "moulu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moulu vs Moura". 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 #126,161 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.