malignesvsmalinsTell them apart

Which to use

“malignes” and “malins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,564
“malignes” frequency rank
#14,081
“malins” frequency rank
58645
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malignes malins
Definition Féminin pluriel de malin. Masculin pluriel de malin.

Where the eye mixes malignes and malins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
malignes
6 ch
malins

Why the eye confuses malignes with malins

A purely visual mix-up. malignes (\ma.liɲ\) and malins (\ma.lɛ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58645, 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\. malins is at rank #14,081, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.lɛ̃\.

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 58645, this pair ranks #107,800 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malignes vs malins

Shared letters: ailmns. Private to "malignes": eg. Private to "malins": -.

"malignes" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "malins" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malignesamlignes · mailgnes · malgines · maligens · maliggnes · maligness · malignnes · malignse
  • malinsamlins · mailns · malinns · malinss · malisn · mallins · malnis · mlains

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "malignes" and "malins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ma.liɲ\ versus \ma.lɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "malignes" vs "malins" - which ranks higher?
"malins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,081 in our French list, against #44,564 for "malignes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "malignes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "malins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #107,800 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malignes" and "malins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malignes 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 #107,800 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