maidenvssoundsConfusable pair

Quick tell: maiden is a noun, sounds is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maiden” is a noun and “sounds” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,670
“maiden” frequency rank
#14,674
“sounds” frequency rank
57344
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maiden sounds
Definition die Maid, die Magd 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sound

Letter map: maiden vs sounds

Shared letters muted; letters that set maiden and sounds apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. maiden (CVVCVC) and sounds (CVVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
maiden
6 ch
sounds

Part-of-speech tell for maiden / sounds

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maiden is anoun and soundsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 6 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57344, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maiden is recorded at frequency rank #42,670, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. sounds is at rank #14,674, tagged as averb, 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 57344, this pair ranks #904,906 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maiden vs sounds

Shared letters: dn. Private to "maiden": aeim. Private to "sounds": osu.

"maiden" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "sounds" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maiden ← amiden · madien · maidden · maidenn · maidne · maiedn · miaden · mmaiden
  • sounds ← osunds · sonuds · soudns · soundds · soundss · sounnds · sounsd · ssounds

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maiden" for "sounds" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maiden" is a noun and "sounds" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "maiden" vs "sounds" - which ranks higher?
"sounds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,674 in our German list, against #42,670 for "maiden". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "maiden" and "sounds".

  • Full dictionary entry for "maiden" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sounds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #904,906 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maiden" and "sounds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maiden 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 #904,906 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