Which to use
“maid” and “mare” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,778
- “maid” frequency rank
- #11,992
- “mare” frequency rank
- 61770
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maid | mare |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Servant·e, bonne, soubrette, généralement une femme. | Petit amas d’eau dormante qui se forme naturellement par l’abaissement du sol, ou qu’on produit artificiellement dans les villages et dans les fermes, pour des usages communs ou domestiques. |
Where the eye mixes maid and mare
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. maid (CVVC) and mare (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between maid and mare
A purely visual mix-up. maid (\med\) and mare (\mɑʁ\) 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 61770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maid is recorded at frequency rank #49,778, classified as anoun, pronounced \med\. mare is at rank #11,992, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑʁ\.
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 61770, this pair ranks #90,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maid vs mare
Shared letters: am. Private to "maid": di. Private to "mare": er.
"maid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "mare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maid" for "mare" ever safe?
Frequency check: "maid" vs "mare" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "maid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mare" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #90,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maid" and "mare" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mud". 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 #90,533 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.