Which to use
“madre” and “mètre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,769
- “madre” frequency rank
- #6,113
- “mètre” frequency rank
- 39882
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | madre | mètre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bois veiné, ou tacheté issus du cœur ou de la racine et généralement utilisé pour confectionner des récipients pour boire | Unité de mesure de longueur du Système international, dont le symbole est m. Le mètre est défini de manière universelle depuis 1983 par la longueur du trajet parcouru par la lumière dans le vide en 1/299 792 458 de seconde. |
Where the eye mixes madre and mètre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. madre and mètre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between madre and mètre
A purely visual mix-up. madre (\madʁ\) and mètre (\mɛtʁ\) 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 39882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
madre is recorded at frequency rank #33,769, classified as anoun, pronounced \madʁ\. mètre is at rank #6,113, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛtʁ\.
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 39882, this pair ranks #244,637 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of madre vs mètre
Shared letters: emr. Private to "madre": ad. Private to "mètre": tè.
"madre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mètre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- madre ← amdre · maddre · mader · madrre · mdare · mmadre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "madre" and "mètre" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "madre" or "mètre" show up more?
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 "madre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mètre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #244,637 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "madre" and "mètre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "madre vs magret". 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 #244,637 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.