Which to use
“maki” and “maquis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,449
- “maki” frequency rank
- #20,192
- “maquis” frequency rank
- 62641
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maki | maquis |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Formation végétale arbustive très dense de région méditerranéenne. |
Same sound, different letters: maki vs maquis
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. maki runs 4 letters (CVCV) against maquis's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: maki vs maquis
This is the hard kind. maki and maquis are pronounced identically (\ma.ki\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62641, 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\. maquis is at rank #20,192, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ki\.
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 62641, this pair ranks #86,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maki vs maquis
Shared letters: aim. Private to "maki": k. Private to "maquis": qsu.
"maki" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "maquis" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maki" for "maquis" ever safe?
Frequency check: "maki" vs "maquis" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "maki" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maquis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #86,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maki" and "maquis" 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 #86,075 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.