Which to use
“manoir” and “menhir” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,353
- “manoir” frequency rank
- #48,042
- “menhir” frequency rank
- 58395
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | manoir | menhir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Demeure, lieu où l’on habite. | Bloc de pierre de forme allongée, dressé par les populations néolithiques, que l’on trouve en territoire celte, notamment en Bretagne et Grande-Bretagne. |
Where the eye mixes manoir and menhir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. manoir (CVCVVC) and menhir (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses manoir with menhir
A purely visual mix-up. manoir (\ma.nwaʁ\) and menhir (\me.niʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58395, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
manoir is recorded at frequency rank #10,353, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.nwaʁ\. menhir is at rank #48,042, tagged as anoun, pronounced \me.niʁ\.
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 58395, this pair ranks #109,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of manoir vs menhir
Shared letters: imnr. Private to "manoir": ao. Private to "menhir": eh.
"manoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "menhir" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "manoir" and "menhir" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "manoir" or "menhir" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "manoir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "menhir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #109,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "manoir" and "menhir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mendier vs menhir". 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 #109,311 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.