madevsmaidenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,860
“made” frequency rank
#46,878
“maiden” frequency rank
54738
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature made maiden
Definition Fruit du Saba senegalensis. Cheval n'ayant jamais gagné une course.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set made and maiden apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
made
6 ch
maiden

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. made (\mad\) and maiden (\me.dɛn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54738, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

made is recorded at frequency rank #7,860, classified as anoun, pronounced \mad\. maiden is at rank #46,878, tagged as anoun, pronounced \me.dɛn\.

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 54738, this pair ranks #132,029 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of made vs maiden

Shared letters: adem. Private to "made": -. Private to "maiden": in.

"made" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "maiden" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • madeamde · madde · maed · mdae · mmade
  • maidenamiden · madien · maidden · maidenn · maidne · maiedn · miaden · mmaiden

Frequency comparison

made#7,860
maiden#46,878

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "made" and "maiden" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mad\ versus \me.dɛn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "made" or "maiden"?
"made" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,860 in our French list, against #46,878 for "maiden". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering made vs maiden

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “made” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

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