Which to use
“minister” and “ministères” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,172
- “minister” frequency rank
- #9,196
- “ministères” frequency rank
- 54368
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | minister | ministères |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ministre. | Pluriel de ministère. |
Where the eye mixes minister and ministères
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. minister runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against ministères's 10 (CVCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: minister vs ministères
A purely visual mix-up. minister (\ˈmɪn.ə.stɚ\) and ministères (\mi.nis.tɛʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
minister is recorded at frequency rank #45,172, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈmɪn.ə.stɚ\. ministères is at rank #9,196, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.nis.tɛʁ\.
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 54368, this pair ranks #134,530 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of minister vs ministères
Shared letters: eimnrst. Private to "minister": -. Private to "ministères": è.
"minister" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "ministères" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- minister ← imnister · miinster · minisetr · minisster · ministerr · ministter · minitser · minnister
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "minister" for "ministères" ever safe?
Which is more common, "minister" or "ministères"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "minister" and "ministères" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "minister" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ministères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #134,530 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "minister" and "ministères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magister vs minister". 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 #134,530 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.