MaidvsmaysWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#35,310
“Maid” frequency rank
#44,064
“mays” frequency rank
79374
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Maid mays
Definition junge, unverheiratete Frau das Artepitheton für den Mais (Zea mays)

Letter map: Maid vs mays

Shared letters muted; letters that set Maid and mays apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Maid and mays follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Maid
4 ch
mays

Pair insight - Maid / mays

Maid and mays are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Maid is recorded at frequency rank #35,310, classified as anoun, pronounced [maɪ̯t]. mays is at rank #44,064, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 79374, this pair ranks #217,804 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Maid vs mays

Shared letters: am. Private to "Maid": di. Private to "mays": sy.

"Maid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maid ← amid · madi · maidd · miad · mmaid
  • mays ← amys · masy · mayss · mayys · mmays · myas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Maid" and "mays" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "Maid" vs "mays" - which ranks higher?
"Maid" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,310 in our German list, against #44,064 for "mays". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Maid" vs "mays" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Maid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mays" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #217,804 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Maid" and "mays" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mays vs puzzles". 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 #217,804 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