Which to use
“maid” and “maki” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,778
- “maid” frequency rank
- #42,449
- “maki” frequency rank
- 92227
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maid | maki |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Servant·e, bonne, soubrette, généralement une femme. | 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 maid and maki
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. maid (CVVC) and maki (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: maid vs maki
A purely visual mix-up. maid (\med\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92227, 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\. 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 92227, this pair ranks #3,172 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maid vs maki
Shared letters: aim. Private to "maid": d. Private to "maki": k.
"maid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "maki" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maid" for "maki" ever safe?
Frequency check: "maid" vs "maki" - 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 "maki" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #3,172 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maid" and "maki" 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 #3,172 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.