Which to use
“maille” is a noun and “maine” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,248
- “maille” frequency rank
- #8,880
- “maine” frequency rank
- 27128
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maille | maine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chacune des boucles que forment des fils croisés ou noués en un point et qui constituent un tissu plus ou moins lâche. | Grand. |
Letter map: maille vs maine
Shared letters muted; letters that set maille and maine apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Role in the sentence - maille and maine
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maille is anoun and maineanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27128, 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\. maine is at rank #8,880, tagged as anadj.
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 27128, this pair ranks #330,925 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maille vs maine
Shared letters: aeim. Private to "maille": l. Private to "maine": n.
"maille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "maine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maille" for "maine" ever safe?
Which is more common, "maille" or "maine"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "maille" and "maine". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "maille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #330,925 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maille" and "maine" 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 #330,925 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.