Which to use
“maiden” and “maire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,878
- “maiden” frequency rank
- #1,142
- “maire” frequency rank
- 48020
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maiden | maire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cheval n'ayant jamais gagné une course. | Premier officier municipal d’une commune, municipalité ou arrondissement, élu, en France, par les conseillers municipaux à l’issue des élections municipales, en Suisse, soit directement par le corps électoral (Jura), soit chaque année pour une année par le conseil municipal (Genève). |
Where the eye mixes maiden and maire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. maiden runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against maire's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between maiden and maire
A purely visual mix-up. maiden (\me.dɛn\) and maire (\mɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48020, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maiden is recorded at frequency rank #46,878, classified as anoun, pronounced \me.dɛn\. maire is at rank #1,142, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\.
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 48020, this pair ranks #182,285 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maiden vs maire
Shared letters: aeim. Private to "maiden": dn. Private to "maire": r.
"maiden" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "maire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maiden" for "maire" ever safe?
Frequency check: "maiden" vs "maire" - 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 "maiden" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #182,285 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maiden" and "maire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs maiden". 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 #182,285 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.