Which to use
“maid” and “mara” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,778
- “maid” frequency rank
- #22,326
- “mara” frequency rank
- 72104
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maid | mara |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Servant·e, bonne, soubrette, généralement une femme. | Rongeur de grande taille du genre Dolichotis vivant en Argentine dans la pampa, les steppes herbacées et les déserts broussailleux. |
Where the eye mixes maid and mara
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. maid (CVVC) and mara (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: maid vs mara
A purely visual mix-up. maid (\med\) and mara (\ma.ʁa\) 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 72104, 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\. mara is at rank #22,326, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁa\.
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 72104, this pair ranks #45,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maid vs mara
Shared letters: am. Private to "maid": di. Private to "mara": r.
"maid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "mara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maid" and "mara" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "maid" vs "mara" - 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 "mara" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maid" and "mara" 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 #45,191 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.