MadisonvsmaisonWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,001
“Madison” frequency rank
#235
“maison” frequency rank
13236
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Madison maison
Definition Type de danse en ligne originaire de Philadelphie. Bâtiment servant de logis, d’habitation, de demeure.

Where the eye mixes Madison and maison

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Madison
6 ch
maison

Why the eye confuses Madison with maison

A purely visual mix-up. Madison (\ma.di.sɔn\) and maison (\me.zɔ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13236, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Madison is recorded at frequency rank #13,001, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.di.sɔn\. maison is at rank #235, tagged as anoun, pronounced \me.zɔ̃\.

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 13236, this pair ranks #401,847 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Madison vs maison

Shared letters: aimnos. Private to "Madison": d. Private to "maison": -.

"Madison" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "maison" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Madisonamdison · maddison · madiosn · madisno · madisonn · madisson · madsion · maidson
  • maisonamison · maiosn · maisno · maisonn · maisson · masion · miason · mmaison

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Madison" and "maison" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ma.di.sɔn\ versus \me.zɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Madison" or "maison"?
"maison" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #235 in our French list, against #13,001 for "Madison". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Madison" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maison" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,847 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Madison" and "maison" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maison vs milon". 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 #401,847 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list