maîtresvsmoitesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“maîtres” and “moites” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,083
“maîtres” frequency rank
#40,873
“moites” frequency rank
44956
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maîtres moites
Definition Masculin pluriel de maître. Pluriel de moite.

Where the eye mixes maîtres and moites

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. maîtres runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against moites's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
maîtres
6 ch
moites

Look-alike desk: maîtres vs moites

A purely visual mix-up. maîtres (\mɛtʁ\) and moites (\mwat\) 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 44956, 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\. moites is at rank #40,873, 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 44956, this pair ranks #206,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maîtres vs moites

Shared letters: emst. Private to "maîtres": arî. Private to "moites": io.

"maîtres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "moites" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moites ← miotes · mmoites · moiets · moitess · moitse · moittes · moties · omites

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maîtres" and "moites" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɛtʁ\ versus \mwat\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "maîtres" vs "moites" - which ranks higher?
"maîtres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,083 in our French list, against #40,873 for "moites". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maîtres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maîtres" and "moites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moites vs moqués". 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 #206,529 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list