macairevsmachineConfusable pair

Which to use

“macaire” and “machine” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,023
“macaire” frequency rank
#1,599
“machine” frequency rank
49622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature macaire machine
Definition Oiseleur à la glu. Engin, instrument propre à faire mouvoir, à tirer, lever, traîner, lancer quelque chose, ou à mettre en œuvre un agent naturel, comme le feu, l’air, l’eau, l’électricité, le gaz, ou toute source d’énergie afin de produire un résultat.

Where the eye mixes macaire and machine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
macaire
7 ch
machine

Look-alike desk: macaire vs machine

A purely visual mix-up. macaire ([maˈkajɾe]) and machine (\ma.ʃin\) 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 49622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

macaire is recorded at frequency rank #48,023, classified as anoun, pronounced [maˈkajɾe]. machine is at rank #1,599, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʃin\.

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 49622, this pair ranks #169,155 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of macaire vs machine

Shared letters: aceim. Private to "macaire": r. Private to "machine": hn.

"macaire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "machine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • macaireamcaire · maacire · macaier · macairre · macarie · maccaire · maciare · mcaaire
  • machineamchine · macchine · machhine · machien · machinne · machnie · macihne · mahcine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "macaire" and "machine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([maˈkajɾe] versus \ma.ʃin\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "macaire" or "machine" show up more?
"machine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,599 in our French list, against #48,023 for "macaire". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "macaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "machine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,155 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "macaire" and "machine" 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 #169,155 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