maximale vs maximales, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#6,526
“maximale” frequency rank: #26,435
“maximales” frequency rank: 32961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	maximale	maximales
Definition	Féminin singulier de maximal.	Féminin pluriel de maximal.

Same sound, different letters: maximale vs maximales

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. maximale runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against maximales's 9 (CVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch

maximale

9 ch

maximales

Homophone desk: maximale vs maximales

This is the hard kind. maximale and maximales are pronounced identically (\mak.si.mal\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “maximale” sits inside “maximales”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maximale is recorded at frequency rank #6,526, classified as anadj, pronounced \mak.si.mal\. maximales is at rank #26,435, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mak.si.mal\.

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 32961, this pair ranks #293,809 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maximale vs maximales

Shared letters: aeilmx. Private to "maximale": -. Private to "maximales": s.

"maximale" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "maximales" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

maximale ← amximale · maixmale · maxiamle · maximael · maximalle · maximlae · maximmale · maxmiale
maximales ← amximales · maixmales · maxiamles · maximaels · maximaless · maximalles · maximalse · maximlaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maximale" and "maximales" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are pronounced the same (\mak.si.mal\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

In ordinary French text, does "maximale" or "maximales" show up more?

"maximale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,526 in our French list, against #26,435 for "maximales". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

Full dictionary entry for "maximale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "maximales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #293,809 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"maximale" and "maximales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maximales 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 #293,809 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.