Which to use
“maintes” and “maîtres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,028
- “maintes” frequency rank
- #4,083
- “maîtres” frequency rank
- 14111
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maintes | maîtres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de maint. | Masculin pluriel de maître. |
Where the eye mixes maintes and maîtres
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. maintes and maîtres follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses maintes with maîtres
A purely visual mix-up. maintes (\mɛ̃t\) and maîtres (\mɛtʁ\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14111, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maintes is recorded at frequency rank #10,028, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛ̃t\. maîtres is at rank #4,083, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɛtʁ\.
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 14111, this pair ranks #398,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maintes vs maîtres
Shared letters: aemst. Private to "maintes": in. Private to "maîtres": rî.
"maintes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "maîtres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- maintes ← amintes · mainets · mainntes · maintess · maintse · mainttes · maitnes · manites
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maintes" and "maîtres" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "maintes" or "maîtres"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "maintes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maîtres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #398,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maintes" and "maîtres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maintes vs manies". 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 #398,146 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.