Which to use
“mafia” and “maid” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,724
- “mafia” frequency rank
- #49,778
- “maid” frequency rank
- 57502
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mafia | maid |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Servant·e, bonne, soubrette, généralement une femme. |
Where the eye mixes mafia and maid
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mafia runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against maid's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mafia and maid
A purely visual mix-up. mafia (\ma.fja\) and maid (\med\) 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 57502, 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\. maid is at rank #49,778, tagged as anoun, pronounced \med\.
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 57502, this pair ranks #114,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mafia vs maid
Shared letters: aim. Private to "mafia": f. Private to "maid": d.
"mafia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "maid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mafia" for "maid" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mafia" vs "maid" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mafia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maid" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #114,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mafia" and "maid" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mud". 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 #114,657 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.