marevsmazeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,825
“mare” frequency rank
#44,065
“maze” frequency rank
68890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mare maze
Definition Stute Irrgarten oder ein Gewirr wie ein Irrgarten

Where the eye mixes mare and maze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mare
4 ch
maze

Visual trap between mare and maze

A purely visual mix-up. mare ([mɛə]) and maze ([meɪz]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - r in “mare” becomes z in “maze”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68890, 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]. maze is at rank #44,065, tagged as anoun, pronounced [meɪz].

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 68890, this pair ranks #493,620 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mare vs maze

Shared letters: aem. Private to "mare": r. Private to "maze": z.

"mare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "maze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maremaer · marre · mmare · mrae
  • mazeamze · maez · mazze · mmaze · mzae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mare" and "maze" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([mɛə] versus [meɪz]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mare" or "maze"?
"mare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,825 in our German list, against #44,065 for "maze". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "mare" and "maze" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #493,620 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mare" and "maze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Matze vs maze". 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 #493,620 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