ma

symbol

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ma” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #93 in French word frequency and used as a symbol.

#93
frequency rank, French
2
letters
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Symbole du préfixe myria-, signifiant 10⁴.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ma vs me
50% similar
ma vs mm
50% similar
ma vs mi
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for ma
PropertyValue
Headwordma
LanguageFrench
Part of speechSymbol
Letters2
Frequency rank#93
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “ma” sits in French frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). ma lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for ma is 2 letters long, classified as a symbol. Corpus data places it at rank #93 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Symbole du préfixe myria-, signifiant 10⁴.".

ma doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "me", "mm", "mi", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is ma, spelled M-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Symbole du préfixe myria-, signifiant 10⁴.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ma"?
"ma" is spelled M-A.
What does "ma" mean?
As a symbol, "ma" means: Symbole du préfixe myria-, signifiant 10⁴.
What words are commonly confused with "ma"?
"ma" is commonly confused with "me", "mm", "mi". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "ma" come from?
"ma" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “ma”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is M-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Don't mix it up with “me” - see the side-by-side comparison. ma vs me
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list