muevsmugWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,916
“mue” frequency rank
#31,613
“mug” frequency rank
51529
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mue mug
Definition Changement de poil, de plumes, de peau, de cornes, etc., qui arrive aux animaux, ou tous les ans, ou à certaines époques de leur vie. Grande tasse dont la forme et la capacité rappellent une chope.

Where the eye mixes mue and mug

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

3 ch
mue
3 ch
mug

Why the eye confuses mue with mug

A purely visual mix-up. mue (\my\) and mug (\mœɡ\) 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 a single letter - e in “mue” becomes g in “mug”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51529, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mue is recorded at frequency rank #19,916, classified as anoun, pronounced \my\. mug is at rank #31,613, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mœɡ\.

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 51529, this pair ranks #154,354 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mue vs mug

Shared letters: mu. Private to "mue": e. Private to "mug": g.

"mue" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "mug" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mue" and "mug" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\my\ versus \mœɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mue" vs "mug" - which ranks higher?
"mue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,916 in our French list, against #31,613 for "mug". 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 "mue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mug" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #154,354 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mue" and "mug" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mug vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #154,354 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