Which to use
“maire” and “mars” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,142
- “maire” frequency rank
- #426
- “mars” frequency rank
- 1568
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maire | mars |
|---|---|---|
| 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). | Troisième mois de l’année du calendrier grégorien, qui compte 31 jours. |
Where the eye mixes maire and mars
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses maire with mars
A purely visual mix-up. maire (\mɛʁ\) and mars (\maʁs\) 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 1568, 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\. mars is at rank #426, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁs\.
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 1568, this pair ranks #437,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maire vs mars
Shared letters: amr. Private to "maire": ei. Private to "mars": s.
"maire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "mars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maire" and "mars" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "maire" vs "mars" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "maire" and "mars" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mars" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maire" and "mars" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs maire". 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 #437,822 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.