Which to use
“maille” and “mill” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,248
- “maille” frequency rank
- #19,602
- “mill” frequency rank
- 37850
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maille | mill |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chacune des boucles que forment des fils croisés ou noués en un point et qui constituent un tissu plus ou moins lâche. | Moulin. |
Where the eye mixes maille and mill
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: maille vs mill
A purely visual mix-up. maille (\mɑj\) and mill (\mɪl\) 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 37850, 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\. mill is at rank #19,602, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɪl\.
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 37850, this pair ranks #259,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maille vs mill
Shared letters: ilm. Private to "maille": ae. Private to "mill": -.
"maille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "mill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maille" and "mill" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "maille" or "mill"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "maille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mill" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #259,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maille" and "mill" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mill vs mito". 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 #259,529 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.