MaasvsmacTell them apart

Quick tell: Maas is a name, mac is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Maas” is a name and “mac” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,962
“Maas” frequency rank
#4,810
“mac” frequency rank
12772
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Maas mac
Definition Fluss in Frankreich, Belgien und den Niederlanden weites Kleidungsstück mit Ärmeln, das mindestens bis zu den Knien reicht und wasserdicht ist

Where the eye mixes Maas and mac

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

4 ch
Maas
3 ch
mac

Visual trap between Maas and mac

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Maas is [maːs] while mac is [mæk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Maas is recorded at frequency rank #7,962, classified as aname, pronounced [maːs]. mac is at rank #4,810, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mæk].

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 12772, this pair ranks #1,962,128 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Maas vs mac

Shared letters: am. Private to "Maas": s. Private to "mac": c.

"Maas" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mac" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maasamas · maass · masa · mmaas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Maas" for "mac" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Maas" is a name and "mac" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Maas" or "mac"?
"mac" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,810 in our German list, against #7,962 for "Maas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Maas" and "mac" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Maas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mac" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,962,128 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Maas" and "mac" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maas vs Mals". 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 #1,962,128 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list