Which to use
“maille” and “malles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,248
- “maille” frequency rank
- #46,281
- “malles” frequency rank
- 64529
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maille | malles |
|---|---|---|
| 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 malle. |
Where the eye mixes maille and malles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. maille (CVVCCV) and malles (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: maille vs malles
A purely visual mix-up. maille (\mɑj\) and malles (\mal\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64529, 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\. malles is at rank #46,281, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mal\.
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 64529, this pair ranks #76,617 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maille vs malles
Shared letters: aelm. Private to "maille": i. Private to "malles": s.
"maille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "malles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maille" for "malles" ever safe?
Which is more common, "maille" or "malles"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "maille" and "malles" 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 "malles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #76,617 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maille" and "malles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malles vs manies". 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 #76,617 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.