Which to use
“maints” is an adjective and “malines” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,418
- “maints” frequency rank
- #19,589
- “malines” frequency rank
- 57007
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maints | malines |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de maint. | Dentelle très fine qui s’est fabriquée originairement dans la ville de Malines, en Flandre. |
Where the eye mixes maints and malines
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. maints runs 6 letters (CVVCCC) against malines's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: maints vs malines
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maints is \mɛ̃\ while malines is \ma.lin\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maints is recorded at frequency rank #37,418, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛ̃\. malines is at rank #19,589, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.lin\.
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 57007, this pair ranks #117,597 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maints vs malines
Shared letters: aimns. Private to "maints": t. Private to "malines": el.
"maints" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC · "malines" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maints" for "malines" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "maints" or "malines" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "maints" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #117,597 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maints" and "malines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mainte vs maints". 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 #117,597 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.