Which to use
“maternité” and “modernité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,695
- “maternité” frequency rank
- #9,875
- “modernité” frequency rank
- 19570
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maternité | modernité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | État, qualité de mère. | Le fait d’être moderne. |
Where the eye mixes maternité and modernité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. maternité and modernité follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: maternité vs modernité
A purely visual mix-up. maternité (\ma.tɛʁ.ni.te\) and modernité (\mɔ.dɛʁ.ni.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19570, 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\. modernité is at rank #9,875, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.dɛʁ.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 19570, this pair ranks #372,609 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maternité vs modernité
Shared letters: eimnrté. Private to "maternité": a. Private to "modernité": do.
"maternité" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV · "modernité" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maternité" and "modernité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "maternité" or "modernité" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "maternité" and "modernité" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maternité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "modernité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #372,609 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maternité" and "modernité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "modernisée vs modernité". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #372,609 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.