maturevsmaureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,039
“mature” frequency rank
#29,856
“maure” frequency rank
38895
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mature maure
Definition Mûr, qui fait preuve de maturité (morale et psychologique). Qui concerne les Maures ou leur culture.

Where the eye mixes mature and maure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mature runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against maure's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mature
5 ch
maure

Look-alike desk: mature vs maure

A purely visual mix-up. mature (\ma.tyʁ\) and maure (\mɔʁ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mature is recorded at frequency rank #9,039, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.tyʁ\. maure is at rank #29,856, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɔʁ\.

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 38895, this pair ranks #252,038 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mature vs maure

Shared letters: aemru. Private to "mature": t. Private to "maure": -.

"mature" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "maure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mature ← amture · matrue · matture · matuer · maturre · mautre · mmature · mtaure
  • maure ← amure · marue · mauer · maurre · mmaure · muare

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mature" for "maure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ma.tyʁ\ versus \mɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mature" or "maure"?
"mature" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,039 in our French list, against #29,856 for "maure". 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 "mature" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,038 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mature" and "maure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magret vs maure". 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 #252,038 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