Which to use
“masse” and “mélasse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,528
- “masse” frequency rank
- #39,411
- “mélasse” frequency rank
- 40939
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | masse | mélasse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Amas de plusieurs parties qui font corps ensemble. | Résidu visqueux du sucre après son extraction et sa cristallisation. |
Where the eye mixes masse and mélasse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. masse runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against mélasse's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between masse and mélasse
A purely visual mix-up. masse (\mas\) and mélasse (\me.las\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40939, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
masse is recorded at frequency rank #1,528, classified as anoun, pronounced \mas\. mélasse is at rank #39,411, tagged as anoun, pronounced \me.las\.
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 40939, this pair ranks #236,818 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of masse vs mélasse
Shared letters: aems. Private to "masse": -. Private to "mélasse": lé.
"masse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mélasse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- masse ← amsse · mase · mases · mmasse · msase
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "masse" for "mélasse" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "masse" or "mélasse" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "masse" and "mélasse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "masse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mélasse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #236,818 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "masse" and "mélasse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mélasse vs métisse". 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 #236,818 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.