Which to use
“maquillage” and “mouillage” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,316
- “maquillage” frequency rank
- #29,454
- “mouillage” frequency rank
- 35770
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maquillage | mouillage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de (se) maquiller le visage. | Action de mouiller. |
Where the eye mixes maquillage and mouillage
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. maquillage runs 10 letters (CVCVVCCVCV) against mouillage's 9 (CVVVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: maquillage vs mouillage
A purely visual mix-up. maquillage (\ma.ki.jaʒ\) and mouillage (\mu.jaʒ\) 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 35770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maquillage is recorded at frequency rank #6,316, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ki.jaʒ\. mouillage is at rank #29,454, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mu.jaʒ\.
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 35770, this pair ranks #274,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maquillage vs mouillage
Shared letters: aegilmu. Private to "maquillage": q. Private to "mouillage": o.
"maquillage" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVCV · "mouillage" · 9 letters · shape CVVVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- maquillage ← amquillage · maqiullage · maqquillage · maquilage · maquilalge · maquillaeg · maquillagge · maquillgae
- mouillage ← mmouillage · moiullage · mouilage · mouilalge · mouillaeg · mouillagge · mouillgae · moulilage
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maquillage" for "mouillage" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "maquillage" or "mouillage" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "maquillage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mouillage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #274,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maquillage" and "mouillage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maillage vs mouillage". 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 #274,359 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.