membresvsmètresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#480
“membres” frequency rank
#1,068
“mètres” frequency rank
1548
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature membres mètres
Definition Pluriel de membre. Pluriel de mètre.

Where the eye mixes membres and mètres

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

7 ch
membres
6 ch
mètres

Why the eye confuses membres with mètres

A purely visual mix-up. membres (\mɑ̃bʁ\) and mètres (\mɛtʁ\) 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 1548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

membres is recorded at frequency rank #480, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃bʁ\. mètres is at rank #1,068, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛtʁ\.

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 1548, this pair ranks #437,855 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of membres vs mètres

Shared letters: emrs. Private to "membres": b. Private to "mètres": tè.

"membres" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "mètres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • membres ← emmbres · mebmres · membbres · membress · membrres · membrse · memmbres · memrbes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "membres" for "mètres" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃bʁ\ versus \mɛtʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "membres" or "mètres"?
"membres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #480 in our French list, against #1,068 for "mètres". 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 "membres" and "mètres" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "membres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mètres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #437,855 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "membres" and "mètres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mètres vs muettes". 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 #437,855 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