Which to use
“maître” and “martyre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #946
- “maître” frequency rank
- #15,182
- “martyre” frequency rank
- 16128
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maître | martyre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne qui exerce son autorité. | Mort ou tourments endurés pour sa religion, sa foi. |
Where the eye mixes maître and martyre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. maître runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against martyre's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses maître with martyre
A purely visual mix-up. maître (\mɛtʁ\) and martyre (\maʁ.tiʁ\) 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 16128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maître is recorded at frequency rank #946, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛtʁ\. martyre is at rank #15,182, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.tiʁ\.
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 16128, this pair ranks #389,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maître vs martyre
Shared letters: aemrt. Private to "maître": î. Private to "martyre": y.
"maître" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "martyre" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- martyre ← amrtyre · marrtyre · martrye · marttyre · martyer · martyrre · martyyre · marytre
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maître" and "martyre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "maître" or "martyre"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "maître" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "martyre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maître" and "martyre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "martyre 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 #389,252 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.