Which to use
“mala” and “malade” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,430
- “mala” frequency rank
- #1,269
- “malade” frequency rank
- 30699
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mala | malade |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Opposé, contraire. | Dont la santé est altérée. |
Where the eye mixes mala and malade
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mala and malade
A purely visual mix-up. mala (\ˈma.la\) and malade (\ma.lad\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “mala” sits inside “malade”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mala is recorded at frequency rank #29,430, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈma.la\. malade is at rank #1,269, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.lad\.
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 30699, this pair ranks #308,537 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mala vs malade
Shared letters: alm. Private to "mala": -. Private to "malade": de.
"mala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "malade" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mala" and "malade" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "mala" vs "malade" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #308,537 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mala" and "malade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mala". 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 #308,537 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.