makesvsmikeTell them apart

Which to use

“makes” and “mike” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,884
“makes” frequency rank
#4,004
“mike” frequency rank
45888
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature makes mike
Definition Pluriel de make. (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour la lettre latine M.

Where the eye mixes makes and mike

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
makes
4 ch
mike

Look-alike desk: makes vs mike

A purely visual mix-up. makes (\ˈmeɪks\) and mike (\ˈmai̯k\) 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 45888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

makes is recorded at frequency rank #41,884, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈmeɪks\. mike is at rank #4,004, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmai̯k\.

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 45888, this pair ranks #199,281 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of makes vs mike

Shared letters: ekm. Private to "makes": as. Private to "mike": i.

"makes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mike" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • makesamkes · maeks · makess · makkes · makse · mkaes · mmakes
  • mikeimke · miek · mikke · mkie · mmike

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "makes" and "mike" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈmeɪks\ versus \ˈmai̯k\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "makes" or "mike" show up more?
"mike" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,004 in our French list, against #41,884 for "makes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "makes" and "mike" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "makes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mike" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,281 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "makes" and "mike" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maël vs makes". 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 #199,281 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