minoisvsminorWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,223
“minois” frequency rank
#37,926
“minor” frequency rank
87149
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature minois minor
Definition Visage ; face. Par opposition au major d’une classe ou d’une promotion, celui des élèves qui a les plus mauvaises notes, le dernier de la classe.

Where the eye mixes minois and minor

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
minois
5 ch
minor

Look-alike desk: minois vs minor

A purely visual mix-up. minois (\mi.nwa\) and minor (\mi.nɔʁ\) 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 87149, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

minois is recorded at frequency rank #49,223, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.nwa\. minor is at rank #37,926, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.nɔʁ\.

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 87149, this pair ranks #8,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of minois vs minor

Shared letters: imno. Private to "minois": s. Private to "minor": r.

"minois" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "minor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • minoisimnois · minios · minnois · minoiss · minosi · mionis · mminois · mniois
  • minorimnor · minnor · minorr · minro · mionr · mminor · mnior

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "minois" for "minor" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mi.nwa\ versus \mi.nɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "minois" or "minor"?
"minor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,926 in our French list, against #49,223 for "minois". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "minois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "minor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "minois" and "minor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mino vs minois". 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 #8,703 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