masquésvsmosquéeConfusable pair

Quick tell: masqués is a adjective, mosquée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“masqués” is an adjective and “mosquée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,040
“masqués” frequency rank
#5,893
“mosquée” frequency rank
30933
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature masqués mosquée
Definition Masculin pluriel de masqué. Édifice où les musulmans s’assemblent pour la prière.

Where the eye mixes masqués and mosquée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. masqués (CVCCVVC) and mosquée (CVCCVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
masqués
7 ch
mosquée

Why the eye confuses masqués with mosquée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: masqués is \mas.ke\ while mosquée is \mɔs.ke\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30933, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

masqués is recorded at frequency rank #25,040, classified as anadj, pronounced \mas.ke\. mosquée is at rank #5,893, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔs.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 30933, this pair ranks #307,059 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of masqués vs mosquée

Shared letters: mqsué. Private to "masqués": a. Private to "mosquée": eo.

"masqués" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "mosquée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "masqués" for "mosquée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "masqués" is an adjective and "mosquée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "masqués" or "mosquée" show up more?
"mosquée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,893 in our French list, against #25,040 for "masqués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "masqués" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mosquée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #307,059 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "masqués" and "mosquée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "masquent vs masqués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #307,059 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