Which to use
“mainte” and “maints” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,723
- “mainte” frequency rank
- #37,418
- “maints” frequency rank
- 83141
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mainte | maints |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de maint. | Masculin pluriel de maint. |
Where the eye mixes mainte and maints
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mainte (CVVCCV) and maints (CVVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between mainte and maints
A purely visual mix-up. mainte (\mɛ̃t\) and maints (\mɛ̃\) 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 a single letter - e in “mainte” becomes s in “maints”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83141, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mainte is recorded at frequency rank #45,723, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛ̃t\. maints is at rank #37,418, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɛ̃\.
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 83141, this pair ranks #15,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mainte vs maints
Shared letters: aimnt. Private to "mainte": e. Private to "maints": s.
"mainte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "maints" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mainte" and "maints" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "mainte" vs "maints" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mainte" and "maints" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mainte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maints" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #15,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mainte" and "maints" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mainte vs mane". 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 #15,384 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.