mesurevsmètreWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#520
“mesure” frequency rank
#6,113
“mètre” frequency rank
6633
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mesure mètre
Definition Dimension. Unité de mesure de longueur du Système international, dont le symbole est m. Le mètre est défini de manière universelle depuis 1983 par la longueur du trajet parcouru par la lumière dans le vide en 1/299 792 458 de seconde.

Where the eye mixes mesure and mètre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
mesure
5 ch
mètre

Look-alike desk: mesure vs mètre

A purely visual mix-up. mesure (\mə.zyʁ\) and mètre (\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 6633, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mesure is recorded at frequency rank #520, classified as anoun, pronounced \mə.zyʁ\. mètre is at rank #6,113, 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 6633, this pair ranks #425,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mesure vs mètre

Shared letters: emr. Private to "mesure": su. Private to "mètre": .

"mesure" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "mètre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mesureemsure · mesrue · messure · mesuer · mesurre · meusre · mmesure · mseure

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mesure" and "mètre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mə.zyʁ\ versus \mɛtʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mesure" vs "mètre" - which ranks higher?
"mesure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #520 in our French list, against #6,113 for "mètre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mesure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mètre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mesure" and "mètre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Méry vs mètre". 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 #425,689 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