mairievsmanieWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“mairie” and “manie” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,430
“mairie” frequency rank
#14,311
“manie” frequency rank
16741
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mairie manie
Definition Charge, dignité de maire. État d’exaltation extrême de l’humeur avec agitation psychomotrice, associé à des symptômes physiques comme la tachycardie, l’hyperthermie et des modifications de l’appétit.

Where the eye mixes mairie and manie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mairie runs 6 letters (CVVCVV) against manie's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mairie
5 ch
manie

Look-alike desk: mairie vs manie

A purely visual mix-up. mairie (\me.ʁi\) and manie (\ma.ni\) 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 16741, 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\. manie is at rank #14,311, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ni\.

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 16741, this pair ranks #386,489 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mairie vs manie

Shared letters: aeim. Private to "mairie": r. Private to "manie": n.

"mairie" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV  ·  "manie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mairieamirie · maiire · mairei · mairrie · mariie · miarie · mmairie
  • manieamnie · manei · mannie · mmanie · mnaie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mairie" and "manie" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\me.ʁi\ versus \ma.ni\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mairie" or "manie"?
"mairie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,430 in our French list, against #14,311 for "manie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "mairie" and "manie" 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 "manie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #386,489 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mairie" and "manie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs manie". 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 #386,489 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list