maladiesvsMaldivesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: maladies is a noun, Maldives is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maladies” is a noun and “Maldives” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,630
“maladies” frequency rank
#21,384
“Maldives” frequency rank
24014
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maladies Maldives
Definition Pluriel de maladie. Archipel situé à environ 450 km au sud du Deccan.

Where the eye mixes maladies and Maldives

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. maladies (CVCVCVVC) and Maldives (CVCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
maladies
8 ch
Maldives

Why the eye confuses maladies with Maldives

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maladies is \ma.la.di\ while Maldives is \mal.div\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24014, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maladies is recorded at frequency rank #2,630, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.la.di\. Maldives is at rank #21,384, tagged as aname, pronounced \mal.div\.

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 24014, this pair ranks #349,156 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maladies vs Maldives

Shared letters: adeilms. Private to "maladies": -. Private to "Maldives": v.

"maladies" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "Maldives" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maladies ← amladies · maaldies · maladdies · maladeis · maladiess · maladise · malaides · maldaies
  • Maldives ← amldives · madlives · malddives · maldievs · maldivess · maldivse · maldivves · maldvies

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maladies" and "Maldives" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maladies" is a noun and "Maldives" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "maladies" vs "Maldives" - which ranks higher?
"maladies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,630 in our French list, against #21,384 for "Maldives". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maladies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Maldives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #349,156 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maladies" and "Maldives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maldives vs maudites". 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 #349,156 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