Which to use
“maillon” and “maillots” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,928
- “maillon” frequency rank
- #14,309
- “maillots” frequency rank
- 38237
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maillon | maillots |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite maille. | Pluriel de maillot. |
Where the eye mixes maillon and maillots
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. maillon runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against maillots's 8 (CVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between maillon and maillots
A purely visual mix-up. maillon (\mɑ.jɔ̃\) and maillots (\ma.jo\) 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 38237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maillon is recorded at frequency rank #23,928, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ.jɔ̃\. maillots is at rank #14,309, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.jo\.
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 38237, this pair ranks #256,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maillon vs maillots
Shared letters: ailmo. Private to "maillon": n. Private to "maillots": st.
"maillon" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "maillots" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maillon" and "maillots" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "maillon" vs "maillots" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "maillon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maillots" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #256,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maillon" and "maillots" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maillon vs milon". 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 #256,701 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.