Which to use
“maître” is a noun and “maîtres” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #946
- “maître” frequency rank
- #4,083
- “maîtres” frequency rank
- 5029
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maître | maîtres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne qui exerce son autorité. | Masculin pluriel de maître. |
Same sound, different letters: maître vs maîtres
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. maître runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against maîtres's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - maître and maîtres
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: maître and maîtres carry the same recorded pronunciation, \mɛtʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “maître” sits inside “maîtres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maître is recorded at frequency rank #946, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛtʁ\. 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 5029, this pair ranks #430,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maître vs maîtres
Shared letters: aemrtî. Private to "maître": -. Private to "maîtres": s.
"maître" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "maîtres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maître" and "maîtres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "maître" vs "maîtres" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
"maître" and "maîtres" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "maître" 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 #430,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maître" and "maîtres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maître vs meutre". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #430,094 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.