Which to use
“mairesse” is a noun and “maîtresses” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,590
- “mairesse” frequency rank
- #21,391
- “maîtresses” frequency rank
- 52981
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mairesse | maîtresses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | , , 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. | Féminin pluriel de maître. |
Where the eye mixes mairesse and maîtresses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. mairesse runs 8 letters (CVVCVCCV) against maîtresses's 10 (CVVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mairesse and maîtresses
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mairesse is \mɛ.ʁɛs\ while maîtresses is \mɛ.tʁɛs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52981, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mairesse is recorded at frequency rank #31,590, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛ.ʁɛs\. maîtresses is at rank #21,391, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɛ.tʁɛs\.
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 52981, this pair ranks #143,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mairesse vs maîtresses
Shared letters: aemrs. Private to "mairesse": i. Private to "maîtresses": tî.
"mairesse" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV · "maîtresses" · 10 letters · shape CVVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mairesse ← amiresse · maiersse · mairese · maireses · mairresse · mairsese · mariesse · miaresse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mairesse" for "maîtresses" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "mairesse" or "maîtresses" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mairesse" and "maîtresses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mairesse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maîtresses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #143,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mairesse" and "maîtresses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maîtresses vs maîtrises". 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 #143,927 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.