mousevsmouthWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#31,143
“mouse” frequency rank
#46,308
“mouth” frequency rank
77451
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mouse mouth
Definition Souris. Bouche.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set mouse and mouth apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
mouse
5 ch
mouth

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. mouse (\maʊs\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77451, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mouse is recorded at frequency rank #31,143, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʊs\. 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 77451, this pair ranks #28,330 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mouse vs mouth

Shared letters: mou. Private to "mouse": es. Private to "mouth": ht.

"mouse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "mouth" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mousemmouse · mosue · moues · muose · omuse
  • mouthmmouth · motuh · mouht · mouthh · moutth · muoth · omuth

Frequency comparison

mouse#31,143
mouth#46,308

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mouse" and "mouth" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\maʊs\ versus \ˈmaʊθ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mouse" or "mouth"?
"mouse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,143 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.

Remembering mouse vs mouth

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “mouse” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list