Which to use
“malice” and “malines” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,998
- “malice” frequency rank
- #19,589
- “malines” frequency rank
- 41587
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malice | malines |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Inclination à nuire, à mal faire, à causer de la peine. | Dentelle très fine qui s’est fabriquée originairement dans la ville de Malines, en Flandre. |
Where the eye mixes malice and malines
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. malice runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against malines's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between malice and malines
A purely visual mix-up. malice (\ma.lis\) and malines (\ma.lin\) 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 41587, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malice is recorded at frequency rank #21,998, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.lis\. malines is at rank #19,589, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.lin\.
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 41587, this pair ranks #232,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of malice vs malines
Shared letters: aeilm. Private to "malice": c. Private to "malines": ns.
"malice" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "malines" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "malice" for "malines" ever safe?
Which is more common, "malice" or "malines"?
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 "malice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #232,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malice" and "malines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malice vs maline". 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 #232,013 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.