malevsmapsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#3,905
“male” frequency rank
#9,591
“maps” frequency rank
13496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature male maps
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs malen Plural des Substantivs map

Letter map: male vs maps

Shared letters muted; letters that set male and maps apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. male (CVCV) and maps (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
male
4 ch
maps

Role in the sentence - male and maps

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: male is averb and mapsanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

male is recorded at frequency rank #3,905, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaːlə]. maps is at rank #9,591, 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 13496, this pair ranks #1,957,619 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of male vs maps

Shared letters: am. Private to "male": el. Private to "maps": ps.

"male" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "maps" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • male ← amle · mael · mlae · mmale
  • maps ← amps · mapps · mapss · masp · mmaps · mpas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "male" and "maps" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "male" is a verb and "maps" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "male" or "maps" show up more?
"male" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,905 in our German list, against #9,591 for "maps". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "male" and "maps". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "male" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,957,619 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "male" and "maps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maps 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 #1,957,619 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