maisonsvsmasonTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,483
“maisons” frequency rank
#14,730
“mason” frequency rank
16213
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maisons mason
Definition Pluriel de maison. Maçon.

Where the eye mixes maisons and mason

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
maisons
5 ch
mason

Why the eye confuses maisons with mason

A purely visual mix-up. maisons (\mɛ.zɔ̃\) and mason (\ˈmeɪ.sən\) 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 16213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maisons is recorded at frequency rank #1,483, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛ.zɔ̃\. mason is at rank #14,730, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmeɪ.sən\.

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 16213, this pair ranks #388,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maisons vs mason

Shared letters: amnos. Private to "maisons": i. Private to "mason": -.

"maisons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "mason" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maisonsamisons · maiosns · maisnos · maisonns · maisonss · maisosn · maissons · masions
  • masonamson · maosn · masno · masonn · mmason · msaon

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maisons" and "mason" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɛ.zɔ̃\ versus \ˈmeɪ.sən\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "maisons" vs "mason" - which ranks higher?
"maisons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,483 in our French list, against #14,730 for "mason". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "maisons" and "mason" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maisons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mason" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #388,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maisons" and "mason" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manor vs mason". 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 #388,857 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