Which to use
“making” is a verb and “malin” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,685
- “making” frequency rank
- #5,152
- “malin” frequency rank
- 26837
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | making | malin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe présent de make. | Porté à nuire, à faire du mal à autrui. |
Where the eye mixes making and malin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses making with malin
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: making is \ˈmeɪ.kɪŋ\ while malin is \ma.lɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26837, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
making is recorded at frequency rank #21,685, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈmeɪ.kɪŋ\. malin is at rank #5,152, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.lɛ̃\.
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 26837, this pair ranks #332,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of making vs malin
Shared letters: aimn. Private to "making": gk. Private to "malin": l.
"making" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "malin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "making" and "malin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "making" or "malin"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "making" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #332,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "making" and "malin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "making vs marini". 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 #332,563 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.