Which to use
“maire” and “marée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,142
- “maire” frequency rank
- #8,269
- “marée” frequency rank
- 9411
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maire | marée |
|---|---|---|
| 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). | Mouvement d’ondulation de la surface de la mer, provoquant une baisse et une hausse de son niveau sur un rythme journalier ou semi-journalier selon les régions du globe. |
Where the eye mixes maire and marée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. maire (CVVCV) and marée (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between maire and marée
A purely visual mix-up. maire (\mɛʁ\) and marée (\ma.ʁe\) 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 9411, 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\. marée is at rank #8,269, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁe\.
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 9411, this pair ranks #416,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maire vs marée
Shared letters: aemr. Private to "maire": i. Private to "marée": é.
"maire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "marée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- maire ← amire · maier · mairre · marie · miare · mmaire
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maire" and "marée" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "maire" vs "marée" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "maire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maire" and "marée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "majorée vs marée". 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 #416,756 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.