massacrervsmassacrésTell them apart

Which to use

“massacrer” and “massacrés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,934
“massacrer” frequency rank
#19,069
“massacrés” frequency rank
35003
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature massacrer massacrés
Definition Tuer, égorger des personnes qui ne se défendent pas. Participe passé masculin pluriel de massacrer.

Same sound, different letters: massacrer vs massacrés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. massacrer and massacrés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
massacrer
9 ch
massacrés

Ear matches; page differs - massacrer and massacrés

This is the hard kind. massacrer and massacrés are pronounced identically (\ma.sa.kʁe\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35003, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

massacrer is recorded at frequency rank #15,934, classified as averb, pronounced \ma.sa.kʁe\. massacrés is at rank #19,069, tagged as averb, pronounced \ma.sa.kʁe\.

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 35003, this pair ranks #279,864 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of massacrer vs massacrés

Shared letters: acmrs. Private to "massacrer": e. Private to "massacrés": é.

"massacrer" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "massacrés" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • massacrer ← amssacrer · masacrer · masascrer · massaccrer · massacerr · massacrerr · massacrrer · massarcer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "massacrer" and "massacrés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ma.sa.kʁe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "massacrer" vs "massacrés" - which ranks higher?
"massacrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,934 in our French list, against #19,069 for "massacrés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "massacrer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "massacrés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #279,864 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "massacrer" and "massacrés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "massacrent vs massacrés". 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 #279,864 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