makivsMaximConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#42,449
“maki” frequency rank
#29,437
“Maxim” frequency rank
71886
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maki Maxim
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. Mitrailleuse auto-alimentée, conçue par Hiram Maxim en 1884.

Where the eye mixes maki and Maxim

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. maki runs 4 letters (CVCV) against Maxim's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
maki
5 ch
Maxim

Look-alike desk: maki vs Maxim

A purely visual mix-up. maki (\ma.ki\) and Maxim (\mak.sim\) 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 71886, 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\. Maxim is at rank #29,437, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mak.sim\.

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 71886, this pair ranks #45,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maki vs Maxim

Shared letters: aim. Private to "maki": k. Private to "Maxim": x.

"maki" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Maxim" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maki ← amki · maik · makki · mkai · mmaki
  • Maxim ← amxim · maixm · maximm · maxmi · maxxim · mmaxim · mxaim

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maki" for "Maxim" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ma.ki\ versus \mak.sim\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "maki" vs "Maxim" - which ranks higher?
"Maxim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,437 in our French list, against #42,449 for "maki". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "maki" and "Maxim" 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 "Maxim" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maki" and "Maxim" 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 #45,920 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