manquantsvsmasquantWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,245
“manquants” frequency rank
#49,212
“masquant” frequency rank
77457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manquants masquant
Definition Masculin pluriel de manquant. Qui masque, soustrait à la vue.

Where the eye mixes manquants and masquant

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

9 ch
manquants
8 ch
masquant

Why the eye confuses manquants with masquant

A purely visual mix-up. manquants (\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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manquants is recorded at frequency rank #28,245, 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 77457, this pair ranks #28,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of manquants vs masquant

Shared letters: amnqstu. Private to "manquants": -. Private to "masquant": -.

"manquants" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCCC  ·  "masquant" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manquantsamnquants · mannquants · manqaunts · manqquants · manquannts · manquanst · manquantss · manquantts
  • masquantamsquant · maqsuant · masqaunt · masqquant · masquannt · masquantt · masquatn · masqunat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manquants" and "masquant" be used interchangeably?
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, "manquants" or "masquant"?
"manquants" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,245 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "manquants" 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 #28,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manquants" 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 #28,313 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