Which to use
“maternité” and “maternités” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,695
- “maternité” frequency rank
- #41,891
- “maternités” frequency rank
- 51586
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maternité | maternités |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | État, qualité de mère. | Pluriel de maternité. |
Same sound, different letters: maternité vs maternités
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. maternité runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCV) against maternités's 10 (CVCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - maternité and maternités
This is the hard kind. maternité and maternités are pronounced identically (\ma.tɛʁ.ni.te\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “maternité” sits inside “maternités”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maternité is recorded at frequency rank #9,695, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.tɛʁ.ni.te\. maternités is at rank #41,891, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.tɛʁ.ni.te\.
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 51586, this pair ranks #153,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maternité vs maternités
Shared letters: aeimnrté. Private to "maternité": -. Private to "maternités": s.
"maternité" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV · "maternités" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maternité" and "maternités" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "maternité" or "maternités"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "maternité" / "maternités". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "maternité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maternités" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #153,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maternité" and "maternités" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maternité vs modernité". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #153,911 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.