mouevsmouthConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,453
“moue” frequency rank
#46,308
“mouth” frequency rank
75761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moue mouth
Definition Grimace que l’on fait en rapprochant et en allongeant les lèvres, en signe de dérision ou de mécontentement. Bouche.

Where the eye mixes moue and mouth

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
moue
5 ch
mouth

Visual trap between moue and mouth

A purely visual mix-up. moue (\mu\) and mouth (\ˈmaʊθ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moue is recorded at frequency rank #29,453, classified as anoun, pronounced \mu\. mouth is at rank #46,308, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmaʊθ\.

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 75761, this pair ranks #33,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of moue vs mouth

Shared letters: mou. Private to "moue": e. Private to "mouth": ht.

"moue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "mouth" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mouemmoue · moeu · muoe · omue
  • mouthmmouth · motuh · mouht · mouthh · moutth · muoth · omuth

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "moue" for "mouth" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mu\ versus \ˈmaʊθ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "moue" or "mouth"?
"moue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,453 in our French list, against #46,308 for "mouth". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "moue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mouth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moue" and "mouth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Moura vs mouth". 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 #33,090 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