Which to use
“mue” and “must” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,916
- “mue” frequency rank
- #16,189
- “must” frequency rank
- 36105
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mue | must |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Devoir incontournable ; obligation sociale. |
Where the eye mixes mue and must
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mue and must
A purely visual mix-up. mue (\my\) and must (\mœst\) 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 36105, 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\. must is at rank #16,189, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mœst\.
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 36105, this pair ranks #271,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mue vs must
Shared letters: mu. Private to "mue": e. Private to "must": st.
"mue" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "must" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- must ← mmust · msut · musst · mustt · muts · umst
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mue" for "must" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mue" vs "must" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "must" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #271,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mue" and "must" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mue vs MWh". 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 #271,962 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.