mestrevsmeureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,071
“mestre” frequency rank
#22,941
“meure” frequency rank
55012
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mestre meure
Definition Grand mât des bâtiments à voiles latines par opposition au mât de trinquet. Graphie ancienne de mûre.

Where the eye mixes mestre and meure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mestre runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against meure's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mestre
5 ch
meure

Visual trap between mestre and meure

A purely visual mix-up. mestre (\mɛstʁ\) and meure (\mœʁ\) 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 55012, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mestre is recorded at frequency rank #32,071, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛstʁ\. meure is at rank #22,941, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mœʁ\.

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 55012, this pair ranks #130,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mestre vs meure

Shared letters: emr. Private to "mestre": st. Private to "meure": u.

"mestre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "meure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mestre ← emstre · mesrte · messtre · mester · mestrre · mesttre · metsre · mmestre
  • meure ← emure · merue · meuer · meurre · mmeure · muere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mestre" for "meure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɛstʁ\ versus \mœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mestre" or "meure"?
"meure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,941 in our French list, against #32,071 for "mestre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "mestre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mestre" and "meure" 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 #130,214 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