malinsvsmutinsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,081
“malins” frequency rank
#44,592
“mutins” frequency rank
58673
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malins mutins
Definition Masculin pluriel de malin. Masculin pluriel de mutin.

Where the eye mixes malins and mutins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. malins and mutins follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
malins
6 ch
mutins

Visual trap between malins and mutins

A purely visual mix-up. malins (\ma.lɛ̃\) and mutins (\my.tɛ̃\) 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 58673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malins is recorded at frequency rank #14,081, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.lɛ̃\. mutins is at rank #44,592, tagged as anadj, pronounced \my.tɛ̃\.

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 58673, this pair ranks #107,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malins vs mutins

Shared letters: imns. Private to "malins": al. Private to "mutins": tu.

"malins" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "mutins" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malins ← amlins · mailns · malinns · malinss · malisn · mallins · malnis · mlains
  • mutins ← mmutins · mtuins · muitns · mutinns · mutinss · mutisn · mutnis · muttins

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malins" and "mutins" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ma.lɛ̃\ versus \my.tɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "malins" or "mutins"?
"malins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,081 in our French list, against #44,592 for "mutins". 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 "malins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mutins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #107,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malins" and "mutins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mougins vs mutins". 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 #107,627 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