Which to use
“mairie” and “maîtrise” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,430
- “mairie” frequency rank
- #3,276
- “maîtrise” frequency rank
- 5706
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mairie | maîtrise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Charge, dignité de maire. | Qualité de maître, en parlant des métiers. |
Where the eye mixes mairie and maîtrise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mairie runs 6 letters (CVVCVV) against maîtrise's 8 (CVVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: mairie vs maîtrise
A purely visual mix-up. mairie (\me.ʁi\) and maîtrise (\mɛ.tʁiz\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5706, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mairie is recorded at frequency rank #2,430, classified as anoun, pronounced \me.ʁi\. maîtrise is at rank #3,276, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛ.tʁiz\.
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 5706, this pair ranks #428,277 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mairie vs maîtrise
Shared letters: aeimr. Private to "mairie": -. Private to "maîtrise": stî.
"mairie" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV · "maîtrise" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mairie ← amirie · maiire · mairei · mairrie · mariie · miarie · mmairie
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mairie" and "maîtrise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "mairie" or "maîtrise"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mairie" and "maîtrise" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mairie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maîtrise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #428,277 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mairie" and "maîtrise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maîtrise vs martyrisé". 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 #428,277 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.