maintsvsmanteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: maints is a adjective, mante is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#37,418
“maints” frequency rank
#40,857
“mante” frequency rank
78275
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maints mante
Definition Masculin pluriel de maint. Vêtement de femme, ample et sans manches, qui se porte par dessus les autres vêtements, par temps froids.

Where the eye mixes maints and mante

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. maints runs 6 letters (CVVCCC) against mante's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
maints
5 ch
mante

Why the eye confuses maints with mante

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maints is \mɛ̃\ while mante is \mɑ̃t\. 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 78275, 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\. mante is at rank #40,857, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃t\.

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 78275, this pair ranks #26,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maints vs mante

Shared letters: amnt. Private to "maints": is. Private to "mante": e.

"maints" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC  ·  "mante" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maintsamints · mainnts · mainst · maintss · maintts · maitns · manits · miants
  • manteamnte · mannte · mantte · matne · mmante · mnate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maints" and "mante" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maints" is an adjective and "mante" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maints" or "mante"?
"maints" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,418 in our French list, against #40,857 for "mante". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maints" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maints" and "mante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manor vs mante". 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 #26,188 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list