Which to use
“maligne” and “malines” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,588
- “maligne” frequency rank
- #19,589
- “malines” frequency rank
- 39177
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maligne | malines |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne fine et rusée. | Dentelle très fine qui s’est fabriquée originairement dans la ville de Malines, en Flandre. |
Where the eye mixes maligne and malines
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. maligne (CVCVCCV) and malines (CVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: maligne vs malines
A purely visual mix-up. maligne (\ma.liɲ\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39177, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maligne is recorded at frequency rank #19,588, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.liɲ\. 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 39177, this pair ranks #249,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maligne vs malines
Shared letters: aeilmn. Private to "maligne": g. Private to "malines": s.
"maligne" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "malines" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maligne" and "malines" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "maligne" or "malines" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "maligne" 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 #249,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maligne" and "malines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malines vs manies". 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 #249,928 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.