membrevsmémoireTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,034
“membre” frequency rank
#1,093
“mémoire” frequency rank
2127
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature membre mémoire
Definition 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. Capacité à retenir, conserver et rappeler de nombreuses informations antérieures.

Where the eye mixes membre and mémoire

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. membre runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against mémoire's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
membre
7 ch
mémoire

Look-alike desk: membre vs mémoire

A purely visual mix-up. membre (\mɑ̃bʁ\) and mémoire (\me.mwaʁ\) 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 2127, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

membre is recorded at frequency rank #1,034, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃bʁ\. mémoire is at rank #1,093, tagged as anoun, pronounced \me.mwaʁ\.

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 2127, this pair ranks #436,733 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of membre vs mémoire

Shared letters: emr. Private to "membre": b. Private to "mémoire": ioé.

"membre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "mémoire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • membre ← emmbre · mebmre · membbre · membrre · memmbre · memrbe · mmebre · mmembre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "membre" and "mémoire" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃bʁ\ versus \me.mwaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "membre" vs "mémoire" - which ranks higher?
"membre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,034 in our French list, against #1,093 for "mémoire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "membre" and "mémoire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "membre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mémoire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,733 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "membre" and "mémoire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "membre vs meutre". 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 #436,733 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