Which to use
“malines” and “matinées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,589
- “malines” frequency rank
- #38,915
- “matinées” frequency rank
- 58504
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malines | matinées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dentelle très fine qui s’est fabriquée originairement dans la ville de Malines, en Flandre. | Pluriel de matinée. |
Where the eye mixes malines and matinées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. malines runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against matinées's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses malines with matinées
A purely visual mix-up. malines (\ma.lin\) and matinées (\ma.ti.ne\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malines is recorded at frequency rank #19,589, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.lin\. matinées is at rank #38,915, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ti.ne\.
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 58504, this pair ranks #108,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of malines vs matinées
Shared letters: aeimns. Private to "malines": l. Private to "matinées": té.
"malines" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "matinées" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- malines ← amlines · mailnes · maliness · malinnes · malinse · mallines · malnies · mlaines
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "malines" and "matinées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "malines" or "matinées"?
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 "malines" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "matinées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #108,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malines" and "matinées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "matinées vs mitigées". 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 #108,671 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.