mapsvsmauWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: maps is a noun, mau is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#9,591
“maps” frequency rank
#17,357
“mau” frequency rank
26948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maps mau
Definition Plural des Substantivs map sich nicht ganz wohl fühlend

Letter map: maps vs mau

Shared letters muted; letters that set maps and mau apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
maps
3 ch
mau

Role in the sentence - maps and mau

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maps is anoun and mauanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maps is recorded at frequency rank #9,591, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. mau is at rank #17,357, tagged as anadj, pronounced [maʊ̯].

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 26948, this pair ranks #1,809,738 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maps vs mau

Shared letters: am. Private to "maps": ps. Private to "mau": u.

"maps" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mau" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mapsamps · mapps · mapss · masp · mmaps · mpas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maps" and "mau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maps" is a noun and "mau" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "maps" or "mau" show up more?
"maps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,591 in our German list, against #17,357 for "mau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "maps" vs "mau" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maps" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,809,738 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maps" and "mau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs mau". 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 #1,809,738 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