Which to use
“malines” and “maximes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,589
- “malines” frequency rank
- #42,456
- “maximes” frequency rank
- 62045
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malines | maximes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dentelle très fine qui s’est fabriquée originairement dans la ville de Malines, en Flandre. | Pluriel de maxime. |
Where the eye mixes malines and maximes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between malines and maximes
A purely visual mix-up. malines (\ma.lin\) and maximes (\mak.sim\) 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 62045, 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\. maximes is at rank #42,456, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mak.sim\.
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 62045, this pair ranks #89,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of malines vs maximes
Shared letters: aeims. Private to "malines": ln. Private to "maximes": x.
"malines" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "maximes" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "malines" and "maximes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "malines" or "maximes"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "malines" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maximes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #89,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malines" and "maximes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manies vs maximes". 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 #89,137 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.