Which to use
“maid” and “mains” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,778
- “maid” frequency rank
- #753
- “mains” frequency rank
- 50531
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maid | mains |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Servant·e, bonne, soubrette, généralement une femme. | Pluriel de main. |
Where the eye mixes maid and mains
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. maid runs 4 letters (CVVC) against mains's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses maid with mains
A purely visual mix-up. maid (\med\) and mains (\mɛ̃\) 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 50531, 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\. mains is at rank #753, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛ̃\.
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 50531, this pair ranks #161,939 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maid vs mains
Shared letters: aim. Private to "maid": d. Private to "mains": ns.
"maid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "mains" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maid" and "mains" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "maid" or "mains"?
Useful next steps
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 "mains" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #161,939 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maid" and "mains" 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 #161,939 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.