Which to use
“muet” is an adjective and “muguet” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,034
- “muet” frequency rank
- #40,877
- “muguet” frequency rank
- 50911
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | muet | muguet |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est privé de l’usage de la parole, naturellement ou par accident. | Nom usuel de Convallaria majalis, plante herbacée des régions tempérées dont les fleurs printanières, petites et blanches, forment des grappes de clochettes très odorantes. |
Where the eye mixes muet and muguet
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. muet runs 4 letters (CVVC) against muguet's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses muet with muguet
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: muet is \mɥɛ\ while muguet is \my.ɡɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50911, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
muet is recorded at frequency rank #10,034, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɥɛ\. muguet is at rank #40,877, tagged as anoun, pronounced \my.ɡɛ\.
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 50911, this pair ranks #158,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of muet vs muguet
Shared letters: emtu. Private to "muet": -. Private to "muguet": g.
"muet" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "muguet" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "muet" for "muguet" ever safe?
Which is more common, "muet" or "muguet"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "muet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "muguet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #158,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "muet" and "muguet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magret vs muguet". 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 #158,994 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.