MadisonvsmaisonsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,001
“Madison” frequency rank
#1,483
“maisons” frequency rank
14484
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Madison maisons
Definition Type de danse en ligne originaire de Philadelphie. Pluriel de maison.

Where the eye mixes Madison and maisons

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

7 ch
Madison
7 ch
maisons

Visual trap between Madison and maisons

A purely visual mix-up. Madison (\ma.di.sɔn\) and maisons (\mɛ.zɔ̃\) 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 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14484, 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\. maisons is at rank #1,483, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛ.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 14484, this pair ranks #396,438 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Madison vs maisons

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

"Madison" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "maisons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Madisonamdison · maddison · madiosn · madisno · madisonn · madisson · madsion · maidson
  • maisonsamisons · maiosns · maisnos · maisonns · maisonss · maisosn · maissons · masions

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Madison" for "maisons" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ma.di.sɔn\ versus \mɛ.zɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Madison" or "maisons"?
"maisons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,483 in our French list, against #13,001 for "Madison". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "maisons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,438 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Madison" and "maisons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maillons vs maisons". 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 #396,438 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