maasvsmewsConfusable pair

Which to use

“maas” and “mews” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,597
“maas” frequency rank
#43,263
“mews” frequency rank
89860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maas mews
Definition sour milk An alley where there are stables; a narrow passage; a confined place.

Where the eye mixes maas and mews

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. maas (CVVC) and mews (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
maas
4 ch
mews

Look-alike desk: maas vs mews

A purely visual mix-up. maas (/mɑːs/) and mews (/mjuːz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89860, 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/. mews is at rank #43,263, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mjuːz/.

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 89860, this pair ranks #4,729 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maas vs mews

Shared letters: ms. Private to "maas": a. Private to "mews": ew.

"maas" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mews" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maas ← mmaas
  • mews ← emws · mesw · mewss · mewws · mmews · mwes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maas" and "mews" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/mɑːs/ versus /mjuːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "maas" vs "mews" - which ranks higher?
"mews" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,263 in our English list, against #46,597 for "maas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mews" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,729 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maas" and "mews" 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 #4,729 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list