Which to use
“martinet” and “matinée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,898
- “martinet” frequency rank
- #5,365
- “matinée” frequency rank
- 38263
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | martinet | matinée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce d’oiseau à très longues ailes et à pattes très petites, migrateur. Ressemblant à l'hirondelle, il ne lui est en fait pas du tout apparenté génétiquement : il appartient à la famille des apodidés. | Partie du matin qui s’écoule depuis le point du jour jusqu’à midi. |
Where the eye mixes martinet and matinée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. martinet runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against matinée's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between martinet and matinée
A purely visual mix-up. martinet (\maʁ.ti.nɛ\) and matinée (\ma.ti.ne\) 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 38263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
martinet is recorded at frequency rank #32,898, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.ti.nɛ\. matinée is at rank #5,365, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ti.ne\.
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 38263, this pair ranks #256,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of martinet vs matinée
Shared letters: aeimnt. Private to "martinet": r. Private to "matinée": é.
"martinet" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "matinée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- martinet ← amrtinet · maritnet · marrtinet · martient · martinett · martinnet · martinte · martniet
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "martinet" for "matinée" ever safe?
Which is more common, "martinet" or "matinée"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "martinet" and "matinée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "martinet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "matinée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #256,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "martinet" and "matinée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mariner vs martinet". 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 #256,502 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.