manquéevsmasquéeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#22,932
“manquée” frequency rank
#33,345
“masquée” frequency rank
56277
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manquée masquée
Definition Féminin singulier de manqué. Féminin singulier de masqué.

Where the eye mixes manquée and masquée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. manquée and masquée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
manquée
7 ch
masquée

Look-alike desk: manquée vs masquée

A purely visual mix-up. manquée (\mɑ̃.ke\) and masquée (\mas.ke\) 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 “manquée” becomes s in “masquée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56277, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manquée is recorded at frequency rank #22,932, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɑ̃.ke\. masquée is at rank #33,345, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mas.ke\.

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 56277, this pair ranks #122,097 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of manquée vs masquée

Shared letters: aemqué. Private to "manquée": n. Private to "masquée": s.

"manquée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV  ·  "masquée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manquée" and "masquée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃.ke\ versus \mas.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "manquée" vs "masquée" - which ranks higher?
"manquée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,932 in our French list, against #33,345 for "masquée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "manquée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "masquée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,097 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manquée" and "masquée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "masquée vs moquée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #122,097 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