majeurevsmeureWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,471
“majeure” frequency rank
#22,941
“meure” frequency rank
26412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature majeure meure
Definition Attribut de la conclusion, qui a plus d'extension que le sujet. Graphie ancienne de mûre.

Where the eye mixes majeure and meure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
majeure
5 ch
meure

Why the eye confuses majeure with meure

A purely visual mix-up. majeure (\ma.ʒœʁ\) and meure (\mœʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

majeure is recorded at frequency rank #3,471, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʒœʁ\. meure is at rank #22,941, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mœʁ\.

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 26412, this pair ranks #335,169 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of majeure vs meure

Shared letters: emru. Private to "majeure": aj. Private to "meure": -.

"majeure" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "meure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • majeureamjeure · maejure · majerue · majeuer · majeurre · majjeure · majuere · mjaeure
  • meureemure · merue · meuer · meurre · mmeure · muere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "majeure" for "meure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ma.ʒœʁ\ versus \mœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "majeure" vs "meure" - which ranks higher?
"majeure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,471 in our French list, against #22,941 for "meure". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "majeure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #335,169 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "majeure" and "meure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Méry vs meure". 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 #335,169 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