MadevsMailWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Made” and “Mail” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,362
“Made” frequency rank
#1,814
“Mail” frequency rank
9176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Made Mail
Definition Larve einer Fliege E-Mail

Where the eye mixes Made and Mail

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Made (CVCV) and Mail (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Made
4 ch
Mail

Visual trap between Made and Mail

A purely visual mix-up. Made ([ˈmaːdə]) and Mail ([mɛɪ̯l]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Made is recorded at frequency rank #7,362, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaːdə]. Mail is at rank #1,814, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɛɪ̯l].

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 9176, this pair ranks #1,981,140 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Made vs Mail

Shared letters: am. Private to "Made": de. Private to "Mail": il.

"Made" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Mail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Madeamde · madde · maed · mdae · mmade
  • Mailamil · maill · mial · mmail

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Made" for "Mail" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaːdə] versus [mɛɪ̯l]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Made" or "Mail"?
"Mail" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,814 in our German list, against #7,362 for "Made". 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 "Made" and "Mail" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Made" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mail" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,981,140 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Made" and "Mail" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Made vs Matze". 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 #1,981,140 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