mauxvsmeurConfusable pair

Quick tell: maux is a noun, meur is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maux” is a noun and “meur” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,412
“maux” frequency rank
#43,010
“meur” frequency rank
49422
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maux meur
Definition Pluriel de mal. Mûr.

Letter map: maux vs meur

Shared letters muted; letters that set maux and meur apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. maux and meur follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
maux
4 ch
meur

Grammar separator: maux vs meur

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maux is anoun and meuranadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49422, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maux is recorded at frequency rank #6,412, classified as anoun, pronounced \mo\. meur is at rank #43,010, tagged as anadj.

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 49422, this pair ranks #170,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maux vs meur

Shared letters: mu. Private to "maux": ax. Private to "meur": er.

"maux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "meur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maux ← amux · mauxx · maxu · mmaux · muax
  • meur ← emur · meru · meurr · mmeur

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maux" for "meur" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maux" is a noun and "meur" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "maux" vs "meur" - which ranks higher?
"maux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,412 in our French list, against #43,010 for "meur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "maux" and "meur".

  • Full dictionary entry for "maux" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #170,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maux" and "meur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meur vs mud". 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 #170,802 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