maîtrevsmoiteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: maître is a noun, moite is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maître” is a noun and “moite” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#946
“maître” frequency rank
#40,376
“moite” frequency rank
41322
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maître moite
Definition Personne qui exerce son autorité. Qui a quelque humidité, qui est un peu mouillé. Se dit surtout de la peau rendue humide par la sueur.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set maître and moite apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
maître
5 ch
moite

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maître is \mɛtʁ\ while moite is \mwat\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41322, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maître is recorded at frequency rank #946, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛtʁ\. moite is at rank #40,376, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mwat\.

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 41322, this pair ranks #233,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maître vs moite

Shared letters: emt. Private to "maître": arî. Private to "moite": io.

"maître" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "moite" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moitemiote · mmoite · moiet · moitte · motie · omite

Frequency comparison

maître#946
moite#40,376

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maître" and "moite" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maître" is a noun and "moite" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maître" or "moite"?
"maître" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #946 in our French list, against #40,376 for "moite". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering maître vs moite

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “maître”; for an adjective, it's “moite”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “maître” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list