mutervsmutuelTell them apart

Quick tell: muter is a verb, mutuel is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“muter” is a verb and “mutuel” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,475
“muter” frequency rank
#12,427
“mutuel” frequency rank
54902
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature muter mutuel
Definition Changer de forme, voire évoluer. Qui est réciproque entre deux ou plusieurs personnes, entre deux ou plusieurs choses.

Where the eye mixes muter and mutuel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
muter
6 ch
mutuel

Why the eye confuses muter with mutuel

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: muter is \my.te\ while mutuel is \my.tɥɛl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54902, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

muter is recorded at frequency rank #42,475, classified as averb, pronounced \my.te\. mutuel is at rank #12,427, tagged as anadj, pronounced \my.tɥɛl\.

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 54902, this pair ranks #130,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of muter vs mutuel

Shared letters: emtu. Private to "muter": r. Private to "mutuel": l.

"muter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mutuel" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mutermmuter · mtuer · muetr · muterr · mutre · mutter · umter
  • mutuelmmutuel · mtuuel · muteul · muttuel · mutuell · mutule · muutel · umtuel

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "muter" for "mutuel" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "muter" is a verb and "mutuel" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "muter" or "mutuel"?
"mutuel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,427 in our French list, against #42,475 for "muter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "muter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mutuel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "muter" and "mutuel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs muter". 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 #130,916 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