maigretvsmaigriWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: maigret is a adjective, maigri is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#44,036
“maigret” frequency rank
#43,540
“maigri” frequency rank
87576
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maigret maigri
Definition Un peu trop maigre, chétif, maigrichon. Participe passé masculin singulier de maigrir.

Where the eye mixes maigret and maigri

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

7 ch
maigret
6 ch
maigri

Look-alike desk: maigret vs maigri

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maigret is \mɛ.ɡʁɛ\ while maigri is \me.ɡʁi\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maigret is recorded at frequency rank #44,036, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛ.ɡʁɛ\. maigri is at rank #43,540, tagged as averb, pronounced \me.ɡʁi\.

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 87576, this pair ranks #8,083 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maigret vs maigri

Shared letters: agimr. Private to "maigret": et. Private to "maigri": -.

"maigret" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "maigri" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maigretamigret · magiret · maigert · maiggret · maigrett · maigrret · maigrte · mairget
  • maigriamigri · magiri · maiggri · maigir · mairgi · miagri · mmaigri

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maigret" for "maigri" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maigret" is an adjective and "maigri" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "maigret" or "maigri" show up more?
"maigri" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,540 in our French list, against #44,036 for "maigret". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maigret" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maigri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,083 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maigret" and "maigri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magret vs maigret". 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 #8,083 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