Which to use
“malus” and “maquis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,666
- “malus” frequency rank
- #20,192
- “maquis” frequency rank
- 44858
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malus | maquis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pénalité financière à laquelle sont soumis les assurés ayant trop d’accidents. | Formation végétale arbustive très dense de région méditerranéenne. |
Where the eye mixes malus and maquis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. malus runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against maquis's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses malus with maquis
A purely visual mix-up. malus (\ma.lys\) and maquis (\ma.ki\) 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 44858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malus is recorded at frequency rank #24,666, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.lys\. maquis is at rank #20,192, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ki\.
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 44858, this pair ranks #207,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of malus vs maquis
Shared letters: amsu. Private to "malus": l. Private to "maquis": iq.
"malus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "maquis" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "malus" for "maquis" ever safe?
Frequency check: "malus" vs "maquis" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "malus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maquis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #207,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malus" and "maquis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mads vs malus". 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 #207,260 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.