Which to use
“membre” and “mestre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,034
- “membre” frequency rank
- #32,071
- “mestre” frequency rank
- 33105
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | membre | mestre |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Grand mât des bâtiments à voiles latines par opposition au mât de trinquet. |
Where the eye mixes membre and mestre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. membre and mestre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses membre with mestre
A purely visual mix-up. membre (\mɑ̃bʁ\) and mestre (\mɛstʁ\) 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 33105, 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\. mestre is at rank #32,071, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛstʁ\.
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 33105, this pair ranks #292,831 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of membre vs mestre
Shared letters: emr. Private to "membre": b. Private to "mestre": st.
"membre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "mestre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "membre" and "mestre" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "membre" or "mestre" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "membre" and "mestre" 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 "mestre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #292,831 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "membre" and "mestre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mestre 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 #292,831 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.