mattvsmaysWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: matt is a adjective, mays is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#5,281
“matt” frequency rank
#44,064
“mays” frequency rank
49345
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature matt mays
Definition mit Anzeichen von Ermüdung oder Erschöpfung, mitnichten lebhaft oder rege das Artepitheton für den Mais (Zea mays)

Letter map: matt vs mays

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

4 ch
matt
4 ch
mays

Part-of-speech tell for matt / mays

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: matt is anadjective and maysanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

matt is recorded at frequency rank #5,281, classified as anadj, pronounced [mat]. 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 49345, this pair ranks #1,214,999 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of matt vs mays

Shared letters: am. Private to "matt": t. Private to "mays": sy.

"matt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mattamtt · mat · mmatt · mtat
  • maysamys · masy · mayss · mayys · mmays · myas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "matt" and "mays" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "matt" is an adjective and "mays" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "matt" or "mays" show up more?
"matt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,281 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

You've compared "matt" and "mays". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "matt" 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 #1,214,999 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "matt" 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 #1,214,999 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