maillevsmouilléWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: maille is a noun, mouillé is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maille” is a noun and “mouillé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,248
“maille” frequency rank
#12,622
“mouillé” frequency rank
30870
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maille mouillé
Definition Chacune des boucles que forment des fils croisés ou noués en un point et qui constituent un tissu plus ou moins lâche. Qui est imbibé ou recouvert de gouttes de liquide, généralement de l’eau ; humide.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set maille and mouillé apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
maille
7 ch
mouillé

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maille is \mɑj\ while mouillé is \mu.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30870, 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\. mouillé is at rank #12,622, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mu.je\.

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 30870, this pair ranks #307,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maille vs mouillé

Shared letters: ilm. Private to "maille": ae. Private to "mouillé": oué.

"maille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "mouillé" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mailleamille · maile · mailel · malile · mialle · mmaille

Frequency comparison

maille#18,248
mouillé#12,622

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maille" and "mouillé" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maille" is a noun and "mouillé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maille" or "mouillé"?
"mouillé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,622 in our French list, against #18,248 for "maille". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering maille vs mouillé

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “maille”; for an adjective, it's “mouillé”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “maille” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list