maestrevsmuestraTell them apart

Which to use

“maestre” and “muestra” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#14,177
“maestre” frequency rank
#751
“muestra” frequency rank
14928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maestre muestra
Definition Militar de rango superior. Acción o efecto de exhibir.

Where the eye mixes maestre and muestra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. maestre and muestra follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
maestre
7 ch
muestra

Look-alike desk: maestre vs muestra

A purely visual mix-up. maestre ([maˈest̪ɾe]) and muestra ([ˈmwest̪ɾa]) 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 14928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maestre is recorded at frequency rank #14,177, classified as anoun, pronounced [maˈest̪ɾe]. muestra is at rank #751, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmwest̪ɾa].

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 14928, this pair ranks #282,186 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maestre vs muestra

Shared letters: aemrst. Private to "maestre": -. Private to "muestra": u.

"maestre" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV  ·  "muestra" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maestre ← amestre · maesrte · maesstre · maester · maestrre · maesttre · maetsre · masetre
  • muestra ← meustra · mmuestra · muesrta · muesstra · muestar · muestrra · muesttra · muetsra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maestre" and "muestra" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([maˈest̪ɾe] versus [ˈmwest̪ɾa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "maestre" vs "muestra" - which ranks higher?
"muestra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #751 in our Spanish list, against #14,177 for "maestre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "maestre" and "muestra" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maestre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muestra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #282,186 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maestre" and "muestra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maestre vs muestres". 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 #282,186 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list