manquantvsmasquantTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,617
“manquant” frequency rank
#49,212
“masquant” frequency rank
61829
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manquant masquant
Definition Qui est en moins, qui n’est pas là où il devrait se trouver. Qui masque, soustrait à la vue.

Where the eye mixes manquant and masquant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
manquant
8 ch
masquant

Visual trap between manquant and masquant

A purely visual mix-up. manquant (\mɑ̃.kɑ̃\) and masquant (\mas.kɑ̃\) 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 a single letter - n in “manquant” becomes s in “masquant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61829, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manquant is recorded at frequency rank #12,617, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɑ̃.kɑ̃\. masquant is at rank #49,212, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mas.kɑ̃\.

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 61829, this pair ranks #90,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of manquant vs masquant

Shared letters: amnqtu. Private to "manquant": -. Private to "masquant": s.

"manquant" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC  ·  "masquant" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manquantamnquant · mannquant · manqaunt · manqquant · manquannt · manquantt · manquatn · manqunat
  • masquantamsquant · maqsuant · masqaunt · masqquant · masquannt · masquantt · masquatn · masqunat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "manquant" for "masquant" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃.kɑ̃\ versus \mas.kɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manquant" or "masquant"?
"manquant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,617 in our French list, against #49,212 for "masquant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "manquant" and "masquant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manquant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "masquant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #90,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manquant" and "masquant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "masquant vs masquent". 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 #90,195 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