mare vs mays, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#24,825
“mare” frequency rank: #44,064
“mays” frequency rank: 68889
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	mare	mays
Definition	Stute	das Artepitheton für den Mais (Zea mays)

Letter map: mare vs mays

Shared letters muted; letters that set mare and mays apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

mare

4 ch

mays

Pair insight - mare / mays

mare 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 68889, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mare is recorded at frequency rank #24,825, classified as anoun, pronounced [mɛə]. 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 68889, this pair ranks #493,649 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mare vs mays

Shared letters: am. Private to "mare": er. Private to "mays": sy.

"mare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

mare ← maer · marre · mmare · mrae
mays ← amys · masy · mayss · mayys · mmays · myas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mare" and "mays" be used interchangeably?

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: "mare" vs "mays" - which ranks higher?

"mare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,825 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

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mare" and "mays".

Full dictionary entry for "mare" 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 #493,649 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"mare" 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 #493,649 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.