Which to use
“maille” and “mails” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,248
- “maille” frequency rank
- #7,725
- “mails” frequency rank
- 25973
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maille | mails |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chacune des boucles que forment des fils croisés ou noués en un point et qui constituent un tissu plus ou moins lâche. | Pluriel de mail. |
Where the eye mixes maille and mails
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between maille and mails
A purely visual mix-up. maille (\mɑj\) and mails (\maj\) 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 25973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maille is recorded at frequency rank #18,248, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑj\. mails is at rank #7,725, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maj\.
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 25973, this pair ranks #337,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maille vs mails
Shared letters: ailm. Private to "maille": e. Private to "mails": s.
"maille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "mails" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maille" and "mails" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "maille" vs "mails" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "maille" and "mails" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mails" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #337,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maille" and "mails" 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 #337,806 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.