maillagevsmailleConfusable pair

Which to use

“maillage” and “maille” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,512
“maillage” frequency rank
#18,248
“maille” frequency rank
45760
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maillage maille
Definition Action de mailler, résultat de cette action. Chacune des boucles que forment des fils croisés ou noués en un point et qui constituent un tissu plus ou moins lâche.

Where the eye mixes maillage and maille

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. maillage runs 8 letters (CVVCCVCV) against maille's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
maillage
6 ch
maille

Look-alike desk: maillage vs maille

A purely visual mix-up. maillage (\mɑ.jaʒ\) and maille (\mɑj\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maillage is recorded at frequency rank #27,512, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ.jaʒ\. maille is at rank #18,248, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑj\.

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 45760, this pair ranks #200,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maillage vs maille

Shared letters: aeilm. Private to "maillage": g. Private to "maille": -.

"maillage" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV  ·  "maille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maillageamillage · mailage · mailalge · maillaeg · maillagge · maillgae · malilage · miallage
  • mailleamille · maile · mailel · malile · mialle · mmaille

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maillage" for "maille" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ.jaʒ\ versus \mɑj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "maillage" or "maille"?
"maille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,248 in our French list, against #27,512 for "maillage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maillage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maillage" and "maille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maille vs Milla". 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 #200,243 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list