Which to use
“maçons” is an adjective and “macron” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,679
- “maçons” frequency rank
- #1,141
- “macron” frequency rank
- 16820
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maçons | macron |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de maçon. | Diacritique de l’alphabet latin, grec ou cyrillique, qui prend la forme d’une barre horizontale (‹ ◌̄ ›) que l’on place au-dessus d’une lettre pour indiquer une abbréviation, une qualité phonétique ou un ton distinct ; par exemple dans certaines transcriptions au-dessus d’une lettre de voyelle pour indiquer qu’elle est longue comme ā, ē, ī, ō, ū et ȳ, dans la transcription pinyin de la langue chinoise indiquant le ton plat, ou premier ton comme ā, ē, ī, ō, ū et ǖ. |
Where the eye mixes maçons and macron
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses maçons with macron
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maçons is \ma.sɔ̃\ while macron is \ma.kʁɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maçons is recorded at frequency rank #15,679, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.sɔ̃\. macron is at rank #1,141, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.kʁɔ̃\.
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 16820, this pair ranks #386,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maçons vs macron
Shared letters: amno. Private to "maçons": sç. Private to "macron": cr.
"maçons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "macron" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- macron ← amcron · maccron · macorn · macrno · macronn · macrron · marcon · mcaron
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maçons" and "macron" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "maçons" or "macron" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "maçons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "macron" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #386,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maçons" and "macron" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maçons vs macros". 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 #386,103 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.