moulinsvsmoutonsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,700
“moulins” frequency rank
#7,089
“moutons” frequency rank
16789
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moulins moutons
Definition Pluriel de moulin. Pluriel de mouton.

Where the eye mixes moulins and moutons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. moulins and moutons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
moulins
7 ch
moutons

Look-alike desk: moulins vs moutons

A purely visual mix-up. moulins (\mu.lɛ̃\) and moutons (\mu.tɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16789, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moulins is recorded at frequency rank #9,700, classified as anoun, pronounced \mu.lɛ̃\. moutons is at rank #7,089, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mu.tɔ̃\.

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 16789, this pair ranks #386,235 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of moulins vs moutons

Shared letters: mnosu. Private to "moulins": il. Private to "moutons": t.

"moulins" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "moutons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moulinsmmoulins · moluins · mouilns · moulinns · moulinss · moulisn · moullins · moulnis
  • moutonsmmoutons · motuons · mouotns · moutnos · moutonns · moutonss · moutosn · mouttons

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "moulins" and "moutons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mu.lɛ̃\ versus \mu.tɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "moulins" vs "moutons" - which ranks higher?
"moutons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,089 in our French list, against #9,700 for "moulins". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "moulins" and "moutons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "moulins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moutons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #386,235 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moulins" and "moutons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moulinet vs moulins". 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 #386,235 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