maïs
\ma.is\
The verdict
“maïs” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #6,849. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #6,849
- frequency rank, French
- 5,038
- “M” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom vernaculaire de Zea mays subsp. mays, — et de ses cultivars —, plante herbacée de la famille des Poaceae (ou Poacées ou Graminées), originaire du Mexique et du Guatemala, à tige droite et aux f...
Corpus desk
Index FR-mais · maïs · French
maïs · rank #6,849 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #6,849
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,038
- PHOTO-FINISH marguerite
Nearest frequency peer: marguerite (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “maïs”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- marais
marais
93,155 corpus weight
- marchands
marchands
93,154 corpus weight
- marguerite
marguerite
93,153 corpus weight
- maïs
maïs
93,152 corpus weight
- menées
menées
93,151 corpus weight
- monarchie
monarchie
93,150 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “maïs” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | maïs |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ma.is\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #6,849 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Où “maïs” se place dans la fréquence du français
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around maïs (IPA \ma.is\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,849 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for maïs, with forms such as "amïs", "masï", and "maïss". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mi", "ms", "moi", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is maïs, spelled M-A-Ï-S.
Definition
- 1Nom vernaculaire de Zea mays subsp. mays, — et de ses cultivars —, plante herbacée de la famille des Poaceae (ou Poacées ou Graminées), originaire du Mexique et du Guatemala, à tige droite et aux feuilles lancéolées, et que l’on cultive comme plante fourragère ou pour ses graines.
- 2Graine de cette plante.
- 3La couleur des grains mûrs de cette plante. #FFDE75
- 4Gitane maïs ou cigarette roulée utilisant du papier maïs.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how maïs appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le fruit des Maïs est un caryopse presque réniforme, dans lequel se trouve un gros embryon presque aussi long que l’albumen.
La région que nous parcourons est une vaste plaine monotone […] Son sol est formé d’une couche presque ininterrompue d’une terre végétale noire et grasse qui, au printemps, se couvre de blé, d’orge, de maïs, de fèves, de pois chiches.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- amïs
- masï
- maïss
- mmaïs
- mïas
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of maïs - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "maïs"?
What does "maïs" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "maïs"?
How do you pronounce "maïs"?
What language does "maïs" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "maïs", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "maïs". Here's where to go from here.
- "maïs" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "mi". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #6,849 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "M" letter cohort. M–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.