Which to use
“maid” and “mails” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,778
- “maid” frequency rank
- #7,725
- “mails” frequency rank
- 57503
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maid | mails |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Servant·e, bonne, soubrette, généralement une femme. | Pluriel de mail. |
Where the eye mixes maid and mails
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: maid vs mails
A purely visual mix-up. maid (\med\) and mails (\maj\) 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 57503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maid is recorded at frequency rank #49,778, classified as anoun, pronounced \med\. mails is at rank #7,725, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maj\.
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 57503, this pair ranks #114,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maid vs mails
Shared letters: aim. Private to "maid": d. Private to "mails": ls.
"maid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "mails" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maid" for "mails" ever safe?
Frequency check: "maid" vs "mails" - which ranks higher?
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 "maid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mails" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #114,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maid" and "mails" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mud". 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 #114,643 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.