Which to use
“maas” is a noun and “maim” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,597
- “maas” frequency rank
- #44,918
- “maim” frequency rank
- 91515
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maas | maim |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sour milk | To wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body. |
Where the eye mixes maas and maim
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. maas and maim follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: maas vs maim
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maas is /mɑːs/ while maim is /meɪm/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91515, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maas is recorded at frequency rank #46,597, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɑːs/. maim is at rank #44,918, tagged as averb, pronounced /meɪm/.
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 91515, this pair ranks #3,252 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maas vs maim
Shared letters: am. Private to "maas": s. Private to "maim": i.
"maas" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "maim" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maas" for "maim" ever safe?
Which is more common, "maas" or "maim"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "maas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maim" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #3,252 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maas" and "maim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maas vs MPAA". 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 #3,252 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.