maurvsmaxWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,932
“maur” frequency rank
#1,704
“max” frequency rank
25636
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maur max
Definition Fourmi. Maximum.

Where the eye mixes maur and max

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
maur
3 ch
max

Why the eye confuses maur with max

A purely visual mix-up. maur (\mø.yːr\) and max (\maks\) 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 25636, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maur is recorded at frequency rank #23,932, classified as anoun, pronounced \mø.yːr\. max is at rank #1,704, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maks\.

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 25636, this pair ranks #339,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maur vs max

Shared letters: am. Private to "maur": ru. Private to "max": x.

"maur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "max" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mauramur · maru · maurr · mmaur · muar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maur" for "max" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mø.yːr\ versus \maks\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "maur" vs "max" - which ranks higher?
"max" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,704 in our French list, against #23,932 for "maur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "max" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #339,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maur" and "max" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maur vs mud". 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 #339,713 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