Which to use
“minus” and “miss” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,073
- “minus” frequency rank
- #3,086
- “miss” frequency rank
- 35159
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | minus | miss |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Individu aux capacités intellectuelles limitées. | Mademoiselle en Angleterre ou dans le monde anglo-saxon. |
Where the eye mixes minus and miss
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: minus vs miss
A purely visual mix-up. minus (\mi.nys\) and miss (\mis\) 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 35159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
minus is recorded at frequency rank #32,073, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.nys\. miss is at rank #3,086, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mis\.
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 35159, this pair ranks #278,727 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of minus vs miss
Shared letters: ims. Private to "minus": nu. Private to "miss": -.
"minus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "miss" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "minus" and "miss" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "minus" or "miss"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "minus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "miss" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #278,727 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "minus" and "miss" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "minois vs minus". 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 #278,727 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.