Which to use
“maki” is a noun and “making” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,449
- “maki” frequency rank
- #21,685
- “making” frequency rank
- 64134
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maki | making |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce de la famille des lémuridés vivant à Madagascar, à museau allongé, au pelage épais et laineux et à la queue longue et touffue. | Participe présent de make. |
Where the eye mixes maki and making
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses maki with making
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maki is \ma.ki\ while making is \ˈmeɪ.kɪŋ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “maki” sits inside “making”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maki is recorded at frequency rank #42,449, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ki\. making is at rank #21,685, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈmeɪ.kɪŋ\.
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 64134, this pair ranks #78,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maki vs making
Shared letters: aikm. Private to "maki": -. Private to "making": gn.
"maki" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "making" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maki" for "making" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "maki" or "making" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "maki" and "making" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maki" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "making" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #78,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maki" and "making" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs maki". 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 #78,521 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.