magretvsmaigretConfusable pair

Quick tell: magret is a noun, maigret is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“magret” is a noun and “maigret” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,201
“magret” frequency rank
#44,036
“maigret” frequency rank
93237
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magret maigret
Definition Filet de viande maigre découpé à partir de la poitrine d’une oie ou d’un canard gras. Un peu trop maigre, chétif, maigrichon.

Where the eye mixes magret and maigret

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. magret runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against maigret's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
magret
7 ch
maigret

Visual trap between magret and maigret

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: magret is \ma.ɡʁɛ\ while maigret is \mɛ.ɡʁɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

magret is recorded at frequency rank #49,201, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ɡʁɛ\. maigret is at rank #44,036, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɛ.ɡʁɛ\.

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 93237, this pair ranks #2,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of magret vs maigret

Shared letters: aegmrt. Private to "magret": -. Private to "maigret": i.

"magret" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "maigret" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magret ← amgret · magert · maggret · magrett · magrret · magrte · marget · mgaret
  • maigret ← amigret · magiret · maigert · maiggret · maigrett · maigrret · maigrte · mairget

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "magret" for "maigret" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "magret" is a noun and "maigret" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "magret" vs "maigret" - which ranks higher?
"maigret" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,036 in our French list, against #49,201 for "magret". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "magret" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maigret" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "magret" and "maigret" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magot 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 #2,410 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