Which to use
“malignes” is an adjective and “maline” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,564
- “malignes” frequency rank
- #46,280
- “maline” frequency rank
- 90844
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malignes | maline |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de malin. | Grandes marées qui ont lieu à la nouvelle et à la pleine lune, et dont les plus considérables arrivent aux équinoxes. On l’emploie surtout au pluriel. |
Where the eye mixes malignes and maline
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses malignes with maline
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: malignes is \ma.liɲ\ while maline is \ma.lin\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malignes is recorded at frequency rank #44,564, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.liɲ\. maline is at rank #46,280, 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 90844, this pair ranks #4,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of malignes vs maline
Shared letters: aeilmn. Private to "malignes": gs. Private to "maline": -.
"malignes" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "maline" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "malignes" for "maline" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "malignes" or "maline" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "malignes" and "maline" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "malignes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maline" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malignes" and "maline" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maline vs marlin". 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 #4,415 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.