maigresvsmauresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“maigres” and “maures” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,476
“maigres” frequency rank
#22,330
“maures” frequency rank
39806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maigres maures
Definition Pluriel de maigre. Pluriel de l’adjectif maure.

Where the eye mixes maigres and maures

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. maigres runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against maures's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
maigres
6 ch
maures

Visual trap between maigres and maures

A purely visual mix-up. maigres (\mɛɡʁ\) and maures (\mɔʁ\) 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 39806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maigres is recorded at frequency rank #17,476, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛɡʁ\. maures is at rank #22,330, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɔʁ\.

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 39806, this pair ranks #245,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maigres vs maures

Shared letters: aemrs. Private to "maigres": gi. Private to "maures": u.

"maigres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "maures" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maigres ← amigres · magires · maigers · maiggres · maigress · maigrres · maigrse · mairges
  • maures ← amures · marues · mauers · mauress · maurres · maurse · mmaures · muares

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maigres" and "maures" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɛɡʁ\ versus \mɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "maigres" vs "maures" - which ranks higher?
"maigres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,476 in our French list, against #22,330 for "maures". 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 "maigres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #245,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maigres" and "maures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macros vs maures". 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 #245,224 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