Which to use
“macabre” is an adjective and “macaire” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,273
- “macabre” frequency rank
- #48,023
- “macaire” frequency rank
- 71296
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | macabre | macaire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qualifie une « danse » consistant en une suite d’images qui représentent la mort entraînant avec elle, en dansant, des personnages de toutes les conditions → voir danse macabre. | Oiseleur à la glu. |
Where the eye mixes macabre and macaire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. macabre (CVCVCCV) and macaire (CVCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: macabre vs macaire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: macabre is \ma.kɑbʁ\ while macaire is [maˈkajɾe]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - b in “macabre” becomes i in “macaire”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
macabre is recorded at frequency rank #23,273, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.kɑbʁ\. macaire is at rank #48,023, tagged as anoun, pronounced [maˈkajɾe].
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 71296, this pair ranks #48,067 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of macabre vs macaire
Shared letters: acemr. Private to "macabre": b. Private to "macaire": i.
"macabre" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "macaire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "macabre" and "macaire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "macabre" vs "macaire" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "macabre" and "macaire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "macabre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "macaire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,067 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "macabre" and "macaire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macaire vs maudire". 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 #48,067 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.