miravsmistTell them apart

Quick tell: mira is a verb, mist is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mira” is a verb and “mist” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,091
“mira” frequency rank
#48,049
“mist” frequency rank
74140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mira mist
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de mirer. Brouillard, brume.

Where the eye mixes mira and mist

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mira (CVCV) and mist (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
mira
4 ch
mist

Look-alike desk: mira vs mist

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mira is \mi.ʁa\ while mist is \mɪst\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mira is recorded at frequency rank #26,091, classified as averb, pronounced \mi.ʁa\. mist is at rank #48,049, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɪst\.

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 74140, this pair ranks #38,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mira vs mist

Shared letters: im. Private to "mira": ar. Private to "mist": st.

"mira" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mist" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mira ← imra · miar · mirra · mmira · mria
  • mist ← imst · misst · mistt · mits · mmist · msit

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mira" and "mist" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mira" is a verb and "mist" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mira" or "mist"?
"mira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,091 in our French list, against #48,049 for "mist". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "mira" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mist" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mira" and "mist" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mist vs MSG". 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 #38,136 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