Which to use
“mestre” is a noun and “meutre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,071
- “mestre” frequency rank
- #48,664
- “meutre” frequency rank
- 80735
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mestre | meutre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Grand mât des bâtiments à voiles latines par opposition au mât de trinquet. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de meutern. |
Where the eye mixes mestre and meutre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mestre (CVCCCV) and meutre (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between mestre and meutre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mestre is \mɛstʁ\ while meutre is \ˈmɔɪ̯tʁə\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “mestre” becomes u in “meutre”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80735, 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\. meutre is at rank #48,664, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈmɔɪ̯tʁə\.
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 80735, this pair ranks #20,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mestre vs meutre
Shared letters: emrt. Private to "mestre": s. Private to "meutre": u.
"mestre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "meutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mestre" for "meutre" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "mestre" or "meutre" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mestre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "meutre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mestre" and "meutre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meurtrie 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 #20,275 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.