mouevsmusTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,453
“moue” frequency rank
#26,805
“mus” frequency rank
56258
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moue mus
Definition Grimace que l’on fait en rapprochant et en allongeant les lèvres, en signe de dérision ou de mécontentement. Jeu de cartes populaire d'origine basque.

Where the eye mixes moue and mus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
moue
3 ch
mus

Why the eye confuses moue with mus

A purely visual mix-up. moue (\mu\) and mus (\muʃ\) 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 56258, 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\. 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 56258, this pair ranks #122,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of moue vs mus

Shared letters: mu. Private to "moue": eo. Private to "mus": s.

"moue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "mus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mouemmoue · moeu · muoe · omue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "moue" for "mus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mu\ versus \muʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "moue" 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 #29,453 for "moue". 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 "moue" 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 #122,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moue" and "mus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moue vs mud". 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 #122,225 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