Which to use
“mafias” and “maïs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,876
- “mafias” frequency rank
- #6,849
- “maïs” frequency rank
- 53725
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mafias | maïs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mafia. | Nom vernaculaire de Zea mays subsp. mays, — et de ses cultivars —, plante herbacée de la famille des Poaceae (ou Poacées ou Graminées), originaire du Mexique et du Guatemala, à tige droite et aux feuilles lancéolées, et que l’on cultive comme plante fourragère ou pour ses graines. |
Where the eye mixes mafias and maïs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. mafias (\ma.fja\) and maïs (\ma.is\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mafias is recorded at frequency rank #46,876, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.fja\. maïs is at rank #6,849, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.is\.
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 53725, this pair ranks #138,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mafias vs maïs
Shared letters: ams. Private to "mafias": fi. Private to "maïs": ï.
"mafias" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "maïs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mafias ← amfias · mafais · maffias · mafiass · mafisa · maifas · mfaias · mmafias