mabvsmahTell them apart

Quick tell: mab is a noun, mah is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mab” is a noun and “mah” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,175
“mab” frequency rank
#21,266
“mah” frequency rank
68441
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mab mah
Definition A slattern. Pronunciation spelling of my.

Letter map: mab vs mah

Shared letters muted; letters that set mab and mah apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
mab
3 ch
mah

Part-of-speech tell for mab / mah

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mab is anoun and mahadeterminer. On the page they differ by a single letter - b in “mab” becomes h in “mah”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mab is recorded at frequency rank #47,175, classified as anoun. mah is at rank #21,266, tagged as adet.

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 68441, this pair ranks #58,851 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mab vs mah

Shared letters: am. Private to "mab": b. Private to "mah": h.

"mab" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mab" and "mah" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mab" is a noun and "mah" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mab" or "mah"?
"mah" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,266 in our English list, against #47,175 for "mab". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mab" and "mah".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mab" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mah" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,851 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mab" and "mah" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mab vs MPAA". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #58,851 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