messagevsmessireConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#708
“message” frequency rank
#19,598
“messire” frequency rank
20306
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature message messire
Definition Charge ou commission de dire ou de porter quelque chose. Titre d’honneur qui se donnait anciennement, dans les actes, à des personnes de distinction.

Where the eye mixes message and messire

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
message
7 ch
messire

Look-alike desk: message vs messire

A purely visual mix-up. message (\me.saʒ\) and messire (\mɛ.siʁ\) 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 20306, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

message is recorded at frequency rank #708, classified as anoun, pronounced \me.saʒ\. messire is at rank #19,598, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛ.siʁ\.

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 20306, this pair ranks #368,938 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of message vs messire

Shared letters: ems. Private to "message": ag. Private to "messire": ir.

"message" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "messire" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • messageemssage · mesage · mesasge · messaeg · messagge · messgae · mmessage · msesage
  • messireemssire · mesire · mesisre · messirre · messrie · mmessire · msesire

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "message" for "messire" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\me.saʒ\ versus \mɛ.siʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "message" or "messire"?
"message" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #708 in our French list, against #19,598 for "messire". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "message" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "messire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #368,938 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "message" and "messire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "messier vs messire". 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 #368,938 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