Which to use
“maires” and “mairesse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,362
- “maires” frequency rank
- #31,590
- “mairesse” frequency rank
- 36952
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maires | mairesse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de maire. | , , La première officière municipale d’une commune, municipalité ou arrondissement, élue, en France, par les conseillers municipaux à l’issue des élections municipales, en Suisse et au Canada, directement par le corps électoral. |
Where the eye mixes maires and mairesse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. maires runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against mairesse's 8 (CVVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: maires vs mairesse
A purely visual mix-up. maires (\mɛʁ\) and mairesse (\mɛ.ʁɛs\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “maires” sits inside “mairesse”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maires is recorded at frequency rank #5,362, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\. mairesse is at rank #31,590, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛ.ʁɛs\.
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 36952, this pair ranks #265,948 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maires vs mairesse
Shared letters: aeimrs. Private to "maires": -. Private to "mairesse": -.
"maires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "mairesse" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maires" for "mairesse" ever safe?
Frequency check: "maires" vs "mairesse" - 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 "maires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mairesse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #265,948 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maires" and "mairesse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macros vs maires". 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 #265,948 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.