Which to use
“moule” is a noun and “moulu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,699
- “moule” frequency rank
- #46,903
- “moulu” frequency rank
- 56602
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | moule | moulu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mollusque bivalve, comestible, dont la coquille est de forme oblongue. | Broyé, pulvérisé dans un moulin |
Where the eye mixes moule and moulu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. moule and moulu follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses moule with moulu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moule is \mul\ while moulu is \mu.ly\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “moule” becomes u in “moulu”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56602, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
moule is recorded at frequency rank #9,699, classified as anoun, pronounced \mul\. 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 56602, this pair ranks #120,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of moule vs moulu
Shared letters: lmou. Private to "moule": e. Private to "moulu": -.
"moule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "moulu" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "moule" and "moulu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "moule" or "moulu" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "moule" and "moulu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "moule" 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 #120,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "moule" 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 #120,055 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.