Which to use
“magic” and “maïs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,190
- “magic” frequency rank
- #6,849
- “maïs” frequency rank
- 19039
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | magic | maïs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Magie. | 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 magic and maïs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses magic with maïs
A purely visual mix-up. magic (\ˈmædʒ.ɪk\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
magic is recorded at frequency rank #12,190, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈmædʒ.ɪk\. 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 19039, this pair ranks #375,336 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of magic vs maïs
Shared letters: am. Private to "magic": cgi. Private to "maïs": sï.
"magic" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "maïs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- magic ← amgic · magci · maggic · magicc · maigc · mgaic · mmagic
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "magic" and "maïs" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "magic" vs "maïs" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "magic" and "maïs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "magic" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maïs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #375,336 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "magic" and "maïs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magic vs maid". 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 #375,336 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.