maquilléevsmouilléeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#36,041
“maquillée” frequency rank
#22,007
“mouillée” frequency rank
58048
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maquillée mouillée
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de maquiller. Féminin singulier de mouillé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set maquillée and mouillée apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch
maquillée
8 ch
mouillée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maquillée is \ma.ki.je\ while mouillée is \mu.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maquillée is recorded at frequency rank #36,041, classified as averb, pronounced \ma.ki.je\. mouillée is at rank #22,007, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mu.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 58048, this pair ranks #111,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maquillée vs mouillée

Shared letters: eilmué. Private to "maquillée": aq. Private to "mouillée": o.

"maquillée" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVV  ·  "mouillée" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVV

Frequency comparison

maquillée#36,041
mouillée#22,007

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maquillée" and "mouillée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maquillée" is a verb and "mouillée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maquillée" or "mouillée"?
"mouillée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,007 in our French list, against #36,041 for "maquillée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering maquillée vs mouillée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “maquillée”; for an adjective, it's “mouillée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “maquillée” 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