malusvsmasConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,666
“malus” frequency rank
#9,694
“mas” frequency rank
34360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malus mas
Definition Pénalité financière à laquelle sont soumis les assurés ayant trop d’accidents. Ferme dans le midi de la France.

Where the eye mixes malus and mas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
malus
3 ch
mas

Why the eye confuses malus with mas

A purely visual mix-up. malus (\ma.lys\) and mas (\mas\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34360, 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\. mas is at rank #9,694, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mas\.

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 34360, this pair ranks #284,386 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of malus vs mas

Shared letters: ams. Private to "malus": lu. Private to "mas": -.

"malus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malusamlus · mallus · malsu · maluss · mauls · mlaus · mmalus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "malus" and "mas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ma.lys\ versus \mas\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "malus" or "mas"?
"mas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,694 in our French list, against #24,666 for "malus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "malus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #284,386 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malus" and "mas" 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 #284,386 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