Maïa

\ma.ja\

/\ma.ja\/ name

The verdict

“Maïa” is uncommon French (frequency #63,917 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#63,917
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Une des sept Pléiades dans la mythologie grecque.

Corpus desk

Index FR-maia · Maïa · French

Maïa · rank #63,917 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #63,917
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH mayday

Nearest frequency peer: mayday (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangs de longue queue près de « Maïa »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « Maïa » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Maïa
PropertyValue
HeadwordMaïa
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\ma.ja\
Letters4
Frequency rank#63,917
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « Maïa » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).Maïatombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « mayday » (#63,916), « maximisation » (#63,915), « medico » (#63,919). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « Maïa » est au #63,917. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Maïa is uncommon French at frequency #63,917 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed \ma.ja\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Maïa, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is Maïa, spelled M-A-Ï-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Une des sept Pléiades dans la mythologie grecque.
  2. 2
    Déesse-mère de la mythologie romaine.
  3. 3
    Une étoile dans l’amas des Pléiades.
  4. 4
    (66) Maïa, internationalement (66) Maja, un astéroïde de la ceinture principale découvert par Horace Parnell Tuttle le 9 avril 1861.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Maïa appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Maïa est l’aînée des Pléiades.
  2. Maïa est une divinité romaine moins connue, parfois présentée comme la femme de Vulcain.

This word in other languages

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 "Maïa"?
"Maïa" is spelled M-A-Ï-A. The IPA pronunciation is \ma.ja\.
What does "Maïa" mean?
As a proper noun, "Maïa" means: Une des sept Pléiades dans la mythologie grecque.
How do you pronounce "Maïa"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Maïa" is \ma.ja\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Maïa" come from?
"Maïa" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Maïa", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list