Which to use
“malice” and “maxime” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,998
- “malice” frequency rank
- #5,366
- “maxime” frequency rank
- 27364
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malice | maxime |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Inclination à nuire, à mal faire, à causer de la peine. | Proposition générale qui sert de principe, de fondement, de règle dans un art, dans une science, et particulièrement en matière de politique et de morale. Par exemple, Trajan disait « ces maximes de Zalmoxis » en parlant avec admiration à propos des enseignements du chef spirituel des Daces. |
Where the eye mixes malice and maxime
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between malice and maxime
A purely visual mix-up. malice (\ma.lis\) and maxime (\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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27364, 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\. maxime is at rank #5,366, 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 27364, this pair ranks #329,449 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of malice vs maxime
Shared letters: aeim. Private to "malice": cl. Private to "maxime": x.
"malice" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "maxime" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "malice" and "maxime" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "malice" or "maxime" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "malice" and "maxime" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "malice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maxime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #329,449 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malice" and "maxime" 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 #329,449 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.