magicvsmakiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“magic” and “maki” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,190
“magic” frequency rank
#42,449
“maki” frequency rank
54639
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magic maki
Definition Magie. 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 magic and maki

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
magic
4 ch
maki

Visual trap between magic and maki

A purely visual mix-up. magic (\ˈmædʒ.ɪk\) 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 54639, 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\. 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 54639, this pair ranks #132,658 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of magic vs maki

Shared letters: aim. Private to "magic": cg. Private to "maki": k.

"magic" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "maki" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magicamgic · magci · maggic · magicc · maigc · mgaic · mmagic
  • makiamki · maik · makki · mkai · mmaki

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "magic" and "maki" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈmædʒ.ɪk\ versus \ma.ki\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "magic" or "maki"?
"magic" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,190 in our French list, against #42,449 for "maki". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "magic" 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 #132,658 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "magic" 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 #132,658 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list