MastvsmayWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,779
“Mast” frequency rank
#5,282
“may” frequency rank
22061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mast may
Definition senkrecht stehender pfeilerähnlicher Träger (allgemein) fünfter Monat im Kalenderjahr; Mai

Where the eye mixes Mast and may

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Mast
3 ch
may

Look-alike desk: Mast vs may

A purely visual mix-up. Mast ([mast]) and may ([mɑj]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mast is recorded at frequency rank #16,779, classified as anoun, pronounced [mast]. may is at rank #5,282, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɑj].

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 22061, this pair ranks #1,878,838 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mast vs may

Shared letters: am. Private to "Mast": st. Private to "may": y.

"Mast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "may" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mastmasst · mastt · mmast · msat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mast" and "may" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([mast] versus [mɑj]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Mast" vs "may" - which ranks higher?
"may" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,282 in our German list, against #16,779 for "Mast". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "may" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,878,838 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mast" and "may" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs Mast". 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 #1,878,838 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