maître

/\mɛtʁ\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#946

in French word usage

Misspellings

9

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

maître is aFrenchnoun. It means: Personne qui exerce son autorité. Pronounced \mɛtʁ\. It ranks #946 in French word frequency. Often confused with mare and mate.

Key facts for maître
PropertyValue
Headwordmaître
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mɛtʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#946
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of maître in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for maître is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \mɛtʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #946 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for maître, with forms such as "amître", "maitre", and "matîre". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mare", "mate", "mètre", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is maître, spelled M-A-Î-T-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Personne qui exerce son autorité.
  2. 2
    Ce qui exerce sa domination.
  3. 3
    Maître d’école ; enseignant dans une école primaire.
  4. 4
    Propriétaire ; patron.
  5. 5
    Propriétaire d’un animal domestique.
  6. 6
    Propriétaire d’un esclave.
  7. 7
    Celui qui prend le rôle de soumettre un partenaire, lequel accepte celui d’être soumis.
  8. 8
    Éducateur.
  9. 9
    Personne qui domine un art.
  10. 10
    Titre des personnes revêtues de certaines charges.
  11. 11
    Titre qu’on donne à un avocat, à un notaire ou à un huissier de justice en France, en Belgique et au Canada.
  12. 12
    Titre de quelqu’un qui est titulaire d’une maîtrise en France.
  13. 13
    Grade donné à un sous-officier dans la Marine nationale française, situé entre son supérieur hiérarchique, le premier maître, et son subordonné, le second maître. Ce grade correspond à celui de sergent-chef dans l’armée de terre française. Les codes OTAN sont OR-7 et OR-6.
  14. 14
    Ancien compagnon ayant atteint le troisième et dernier degré.
  15. 15
    Élément depuis lequel on synchronise, par opposition à l’esclave.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: amître,maitre,matîre,maîrte,maîter,maîtrre,maîttre,mmaître,mîatre

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for maître

Misspelling Variants of "maître"

amître6maitre6matîre6maîrte6maîter6maîtrre7maîttre7mmaître7
Misspelling Variants of "maître"

Frequency rank: #946 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "maître"?
"maître" is spelled M-A-Î-T-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \mɛtʁ\.
What does "maître" mean?
As a noun, "maître" means: Personne qui exerce son autorité.
What words are commonly confused with "maître"?
"maître" is commonly confused with "mare", "mate", "mètre". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "maître"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "maître" is \mɛtʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "maître" come from?
"maître" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter M in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.