Which to use
“mages” and “malles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,382
- “mages” frequency rank
- #46,281
- “malles” frequency rank
- 67663
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mages | malles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mage. | Pluriel de malle. |
Where the eye mixes mages and malles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mages runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against malles's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses mages with malles
A purely visual mix-up. mages (\maʒ\) and malles (\mal\) 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 67663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mages is recorded at frequency rank #21,382, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʒ\. malles is at rank #46,281, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mal\.
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 67663, this pair ranks #62,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mages vs malles
Shared letters: aems. Private to "mages": g. Private to "malles": l.
"mages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "malles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mages" and "malles" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "mages" or "malles"?
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 "mages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #62,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mages" and "malles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malles 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 #62,422 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.