maigrevsmangueConfusable pair

Quick tell: maigre is a adjective, mangue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#8,733
“maigre” frequency rank
#27,121
“mangue” frequency rank
35854
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maigre mangue
Definition Qui contient peu ou pas de graisse ou de liant. Fruit comestible tropical du manguier, de la famille des anacardiacées. C’est une drupe charnue à la chair jaune et sucrée, à la peau verte, jaune ou rouge et contenant un noyau plat et large sur lequel la chair adhère bien.

Where the eye mixes maigre and mangue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
maigre
6 ch
mangue

Visual trap between maigre and mangue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maigre is \mɛɡʁ\ while mangue is \mɑ̃ɡ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35854, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maigre is recorded at frequency rank #8,733, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛɡʁ\. mangue is at rank #27,121, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃ɡ\.

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 35854, this pair ranks #273,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maigre vs mangue

Shared letters: aegm. Private to "maigre": ir. Private to "mangue": nu.

"maigre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "mangue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maigreamigre · magire · maiger · maiggre · maigrre · mairge · miagre · mmaigre
  • mangueamngue · magnue · mangeu · manggue · manngue · manuge · mmangue · mnague

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maigre" and "mangue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maigre" is an adjective and "mangue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "maigre" vs "mangue" - which ranks higher?
"maigre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,733 in our French list, against #27,121 for "mangue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "maigre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mangue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #273,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maigre" and "mangue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mane vs mangue". 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 #273,757 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