ministèrevsmonastèreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,035
“ministère” frequency rank
#7,462
“monastère” frequency rank
8497
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ministère monastère
Definition Emploi ou charge qu’on exerce. Couvent, lieu habité par des moines, des moniales ou religieuses.

Where the eye mixes ministère and monastère

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. ministère and monastère follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
ministère
9 ch
monastère

Visual trap between ministère and monastère

A purely visual mix-up. ministère (\mi.nis.tɛʁ\) and monastère (\mɔ.nas.tɛʁ\) 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 8497, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ministère is recorded at frequency rank #1,035, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.nis.tɛʁ\. monastère is at rank #7,462, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.nas.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 8497, this pair ranks #419,826 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ministère vs monastère

Shared letters: emnrstè. Private to "ministère": i. Private to "monastère": ao.

"ministère" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV  ·  "monastère" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ministère" for "monastère" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mi.nis.tɛʁ\ versus \mɔ.nas.tɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ministère" or "monastère"?
"ministère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,035 in our French list, against #7,462 for "monastère". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "ministère" and "monastère" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ministère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "monastère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #419,826 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ministère" and "monastère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "minister vs ministère". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #419,826 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