Which to use
“maîtres” and “maures” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,083
- “maîtres” frequency rank
- #22,330
- “maures” frequency rank
- 26413
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maîtres | maures |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de maître. | Pluriel de l’adjectif maure. |
Where the eye mixes maîtres and maures
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. maîtres runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against maures's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: maîtres vs maures
A purely visual mix-up. maîtres (\mɛtʁ\) and maures (\mɔʁ\) 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 26413, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maîtres is recorded at frequency rank #4,083, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛtʁ\. maures is at rank #22,330, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɔʁ\.
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 26413, this pair ranks #335,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maîtres vs maures
Shared letters: aemrs. Private to "maîtres": tî. Private to "maures": u.
"maîtres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "maures" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- maures ← amures · marues · mauers · mauress · maurres · maurse · mmaures · muares
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maîtres" and "maures" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "maîtres" or "maures" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "maîtres" and "maures" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maîtres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #335,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maîtres" and "maures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macros vs maures". 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 #335,159 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.