Which to use
“maid” is a noun and “maya” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,778
- “maid” frequency rank
- #11,616
- “maya” frequency rank
- 61394
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maid | maya |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Servant·e, bonne, soubrette, généralement une femme. | Relatif aux Mayas —peuple amérindien précolombien qui occupait le sud du Mexique et l’Amérique centrale (Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua) entre le Iᵉ siècle avant J.-C. et le Xᵉ siècle de notre ère—, ainsi qu’à leurs descendants, à leur langue et à leur culture. |
Where the eye mixes maid and maya
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: maid vs maya
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maid is \med\ while maya is \ma.ja\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61394, 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\. maya is at rank #11,616, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.ja\.
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 61394, this pair ranks #92,531 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maid vs maya
Shared letters: am. Private to "maid": di. Private to "maya": y.
"maid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "maya" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maid" for "maya" ever safe?
Which is more common, "maid" or "maya"?
What to do next
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 "maya" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #92,531 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maid" and "maya" 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 #92,531 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.