maître d’œuvre
\mɛtʁ d‿œvʁ\
The verdict
“maître d’œuvre” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Personne physique ou personne morale qui est chargée par le maître d’ouvrage de diriger l'exécution du travail en raison de ses compétences.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | maître d’œuvre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \mɛtʁ d‿œvʁ\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “maître d’œuvre” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
maître d’œuvre is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \mɛtʁ d‿œvʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for maître d’œuvre, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is maître d’œuvre, spelled M-A-Î-T-R-E- -D-’-Œ-U-V-R-E.
Definition
- 1Personne physique ou personne morale qui est chargée par le maître d’ouvrage de diriger l'exécution du travail en raison de ses compétences.
- 2Responsable de la conception et de la réalisation d'un ouvrage ou d'une partie d'un ouvrage.
- 3Créateur et organisateur d’un système, d’un évènement.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “maître d’œuvre”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is M-A-Î-T-R-E- -D-’-Œ-U-V-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \mɛtʁ d‿œvʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.