Which to use
“maire” and “mance” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,142
- “maire” frequency rank
- #45,727
- “mance” frequency rank
- 46869
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maire | mance |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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). | Manche d’un vêtement. |
Where the eye mixes maire and mance
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. maire (CVVCV) and mance (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between maire and mance
A purely visual mix-up. maire (\mɛʁ\) and mance (\ˈman.t͡ʃə\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maire is recorded at frequency rank #1,142, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\. mance is at rank #45,727, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈman.t͡ʃə\.
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 46869, this pair ranks #191,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maire vs mance
Shared letters: aem. Private to "maire": ir. Private to "mance": cn.
"maire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "mance" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maire" and "mance" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "maire" or "mance" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "maire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mance" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maire" and "mance" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mance vs manor". 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 #191,410 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.