Which to use
“macron” and “maison” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,141
- “macron” frequency rank
- #235
- “maison” frequency rank
- 1376
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | macron | maison |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Bâtiment servant de logis, d’habitation, de demeure. |
Where the eye mixes macron and maison
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. macron (\ma.kʁɔ̃\) and maison (\me.zɔ̃\) 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 1376, 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\. maison is at rank #235, tagged as anoun, pronounced \me.zɔ̃\.
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 1376, this pair ranks #438,171 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of macron vs maison
Shared letters: amno. Private to "macron": cr. Private to "maison": is.
"macron" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "maison" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC