Which to use
“maçons” and “malins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,679
- “maçons” frequency rank
- #14,081
- “malins” frequency rank
- 29760
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maçons | malins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de maçon. | Masculin pluriel de malin. |
Where the eye mixes maçons and malins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between maçons and malins
A purely visual mix-up. maçons (\ma.sɔ̃\) and malins (\ma.lɛ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maçons is recorded at frequency rank #15,679, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.sɔ̃\. malins is at rank #14,081, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.lɛ̃\.
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 29760, this pair ranks #314,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maçons vs malins
Shared letters: amns. Private to "maçons": oç. Private to "malins": il.
"maçons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "malins" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- malins ← amlins · mailns · malinns · malinss · malisn · mallins · malnis · mlains
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maçons" and "malins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "maçons" vs "malins" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "maçons" and "malins" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maçons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #314,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maçons" and "malins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maçons vs macros". 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 #314,678 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.