Which to use
“mafia” and “mafias” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,724
- “mafia” frequency rank
- #46,876
- “mafias” frequency rank
- 54600
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mafia | mafias |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Organisation criminelle sicilienne puis italo-américaine dont les activités sont soumises à une direction collégiale occulte et qui repose sur une stratégie d’infiltration de la société civile et des institutions. | Pluriel de mafia. |
Same sound, different letters: mafia vs mafias
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - mafia and mafias
This is the hard kind. mafia and mafias are pronounced identically (\ma.fja\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mafia” sits inside “mafias”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54600, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mafia is recorded at frequency rank #7,724, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.fja\. mafias is at rank #46,876, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.fja\.
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 54600, this pair ranks #132,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mafia vs mafias
Shared letters: afim. Private to "mafia": -. Private to "mafias": s.
"mafia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "mafias" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mafia" for "mafias" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mafia" or "mafias"?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "mafia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mafias" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #132,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mafia" and "mafias" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mafias vs manies". 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 #132,951 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.