Which to use
“mafia” and “maki” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,724
- “mafia” frequency rank
- #42,449
- “maki” frequency rank
- 50173
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mafia | maki |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Espèce de la famille des lémuridés vivant à Madagascar, à museau allongé, au pelage épais et laineux et à la queue longue et touffue. |
Where the eye mixes mafia and maki
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mafia vs maki
A purely visual mix-up. mafia (\ma.fja\) and maki (\ma.ki\) 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 50173, 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\. maki is at rank #42,449, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ki\.
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 50173, this pair ranks #164,719 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mafia vs maki
Shared letters: aim. Private to "mafia": f. Private to "maki": k.
"mafia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "maki" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mafia" and "maki" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "mafia" vs "maki" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mafia" and "maki" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mafia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maki" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #164,719 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mafia" and "maki" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs maki". 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 #164,719 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.