Which to use
“malin” and “marié” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,152
- “malin” frequency rank
- #3,937
- “marié” frequency rank
- 9089
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malin | marié |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Porté à nuire, à faire du mal à autrui. | Qui s’est marié ; qui a un époux ou une épouse. |
Where the eye mixes malin and marié
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. malin (CVCVC) and marié (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: malin vs marié
A purely visual mix-up. malin (\ma.lɛ̃\) and marié (\ma.ʁje\) 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 9089, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malin is recorded at frequency rank #5,152, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.lɛ̃\. marié is at rank #3,937, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.ʁje\.
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 9089, this pair ranks #417,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of malin vs marié
Shared letters: aim. Private to "malin": ln. Private to "marié": ré.
"malin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "marié" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- malin ← amlin · mailn · malinn · mallin · malni · mlain · mmalin
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "malin" and "marié" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "malin" or "marié" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "malin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marié" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #417,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malin" and "marié" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs malin". 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 #417,834 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.