maquillévsmaquilléeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: maquillé is a adjective, maquillée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maquillé” is an adjective and “maquillée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,485
“maquillé” frequency rank
#36,041
“maquillée” frequency rank
72526
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maquillé maquillée
Definition Qui porte un maquillage. Participe passé féminin singulier de maquiller.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set maquillé and maquillée apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
maquillé
9 ch
maquillée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: maquillé and maquillée carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ma.ki.je\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “maquillé” sits inside “maquillée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72526, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maquillé is recorded at frequency rank #36,485, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.ki.je\. maquillée is at rank #36,041, tagged as averb, pronounced \ma.ki.je\.

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 72526, this pair ranks #43,711 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maquillé vs maquillée

Shared letters: ailmqué. Private to "maquillé": -. Private to "maquillée": e.

"maquillé" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV  ·  "maquillée" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVV

Frequency comparison

maquillé#36,485
maquillée#36,041

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maquillé" and "maquillée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maquillé" is an adjective and "maquillée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maquillé" or "maquillée"?
"maquillée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,041 in our French list, against #36,485 for "maquillé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering maquillé vs maquillée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “maquillé”; for a verb, it's “maquillée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “maquillé” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list