Which to use
“macron” is a noun and “Masson” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,141
- “macron” frequency rank
- #15,935
- “Masson” frequency rank
- 17076
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | macron | Masson |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Nom de famille français. |
Where the eye mixes macron and Masson
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: macron vs Masson
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: macron is \ma.kʁɔ̃\ while Masson is \ma.sɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17076, 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\. Masson is at rank #15,935, tagged as aname, pronounced \ma.sɔ̃\.
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 17076, this pair ranks #384,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of macron vs Masson
Shared letters: amno. Private to "macron": cr. Private to "Masson": s.
"macron" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "Masson" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "macron" and "Masson" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "macron" vs "Masson" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "macron" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Masson" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #384,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "macron" and "Masson" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Masson vs Massoud". 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 #384,920 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.