monastèrevsmonastèresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,462
“monastère” frequency rank
#17,484
“monastères” frequency rank
24946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature monastère monastères
Definition Couvent, lieu habité par des moines, des moniales ou religieuses. Pluriel de monastère.

Same sound, different letters: monastère vs monastères

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. monastère runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCV) against monastères's 10 (CVCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
monastère
10 ch
monastères

Ear matches; page differs - monastère and monastères

This is the hard kind. monastère and monastères are pronounced identically (\mɔ.nas.tɛʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “monastère” sits inside “monastères”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

monastère is recorded at frequency rank #7,462, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.nas.tɛʁ\. monastères is at rank #17,484, 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 24946, this pair ranks #343,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of monastère vs monastères

Shared letters: aemnorstè. Private to "monastère": -. Private to "monastères": -.

"monastère" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV  ·  "monastères" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "monastère" and "monastères" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\mɔ.nas.tɛʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "monastère" or "monastères"?
"monastère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,462 in our French list, against #17,484 for "monastères". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "monastère" / "monastères". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "monastère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "monastères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #343,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "monastère" and "monastères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ministères vs monastères". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #343,648 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