macronvsmacrosConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,141
“macron” frequency rank
#49,776
“macros” frequency rank
50917
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature macron macros
Definition 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. Pluriel de macro.

Where the eye mixes macron and macros

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. macron and macros follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
macron
6 ch
macros

Look-alike desk: macron vs macros

A purely visual mix-up. macron (\ma.kʁɔ̃\) and macros (\ma.kʁo\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - n in “macron” becomes s in “macros”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50917, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

macron is recorded at frequency rank #1,141, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.kʁɔ̃\. macros is at rank #49,776, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.kʁo\.

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 50917, this pair ranks #158,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of macron vs macros

Shared letters: acmor. Private to "macron": n. Private to "macros": s.

"macron" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "macros" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • macron ← amcron · maccron · macorn · macrno · macronn · macrron · marcon · mcaron
  • macros ← amcros · maccros · macors · macross · macrros · macrso · mcaros · mmacros

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "macron" and "macros" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ma.kʁɔ̃\ versus \ma.kʁo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "macron" vs "macros" - which ranks higher?
"macron" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,141 in our French list, against #49,776 for "macros". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "macron" and "macros" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "macron" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "macros" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #158,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "macron" and "macros" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macros vs microns". 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 #158,941 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