membersvsmembreConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#45,731
“members” frequency rank
#1,034
“membre” frequency rank
46765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature members membre
Definition Pluriel de member. Partie extérieure du corps d’un être humain ou d’un animal, distinguée de toutes les autres par quelque fonction particulière. Note d’usage : Se dit principalement des bras et des jambes ; ne se dit jamais de la tête.

Where the eye mixes members and membre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. members runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against membre's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
members
6 ch
membre

Why the eye confuses members with membre

A purely visual mix-up. members (\ˈmɛm.bɚz\) and membre (\mɑ̃bʁ\) 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 46765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

members is recorded at frequency rank #45,731, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈmɛm.bɚz\. membre is at rank #1,034, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃bʁ\.

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 46765, this pair ranks #192,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of members vs membre

Shared letters: bemr. Private to "members": s. Private to "membre": -.

"members" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "membre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • members ← emmbers · mebmers · membbers · memberrs · memberss · membesr · memebrs · memmbers
  • membre ← emmbre · mebmre · membbre · membrre · memmbre · memrbe · mmebre · mmembre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "members" for "membre" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈmɛm.bɚz\ versus \mɑ̃bʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "members" or "membre"?
"membre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,034 in our French list, against #45,731 for "members". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "members" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "membre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #192,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "members" and "membre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "member vs members". 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 #192,270 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