Which to use
“maistre” is a noun and “maîtres” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,062
- “maistre” frequency rank
- #4,083
- “maîtres” frequency rank
- 36145
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maistre | maîtres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Maître. | Masculin pluriel de maître. |
Letter map: maistre vs maîtres
Shared letters muted; letters that set maistre and maîtres apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. maistre (CVVCCCV) and maîtres (CVVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for maistre / maîtres
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maistre is anoun and maîtresanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36145, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maistre is recorded at frequency rank #32,062, classified as anoun. maîtres is at rank #4,083, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɛtʁ\.
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 36145, this pair ranks #271,687 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maistre vs maîtres
Shared letters: aemrst. Private to "maistre": i. Private to "maîtres": î.
"maistre" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV · "maîtres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- maistre ← amistre · maisrte · maisstre · maister · maistrre · maisttre · maitsre · masitre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maistre" and "maîtres" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "maistre" or "maîtres" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "maistre" and "maîtres".
- Full dictionary entry for "maistre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maîtres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #271,687 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maistre" and "maîtres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mainte vs maistre". 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 #271,687 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.