Which to use
“maïs” is a noun and “Mathis” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,849
- “maïs” frequency rank
- #27,125
- “Mathis” frequency rank
- 33974
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maïs | Mathis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom vernaculaire de Zea mays subsp. mays, — et de ses cultivars —, plante herbacée de la famille des Poaceae (ou Poacées ou Graminées), originaire du Mexique et du Guatemala, à tige droite et aux feuilles lancéolées, et que l’on cultive comme plante fourragère ou pour ses graines. | Prénom masculin. |
Where the eye mixes maïs and Mathis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between maïs and Mathis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maïs is \ma.is\ while Mathis is \ma.tis\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maïs is recorded at frequency rank #6,849, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.is\. Mathis is at rank #27,125, tagged as aname, pronounced \ma.tis\.
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 33974, this pair ranks #286,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maïs vs Mathis
Shared letters: ams. Private to "maïs": ï. Private to "Mathis": hit.
"maïs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "Mathis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Mathis ← amthis · mahtis · mathhis · mathiss · mathsi · matihs · matthis · mmathis
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maïs" for "Mathis" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "maïs" or "Mathis" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "maïs" and "Mathis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maïs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Mathis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #286,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maïs" and "Mathis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malais vs Mathis". 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 #286,996 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.