mabvsmaimTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#47,175
“mab” frequency rank
#44,918
“maim” frequency rank
92093
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mab maim
Definition A slattern. To wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body.

Letter map: mab vs maim

Shared letters muted; letters that set mab and maim apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. mab runs 3 letters (CVC) against maim's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
mab
4 ch
maim

Grammar separator: mab vs maim

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mab is anoun and maimaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mab is recorded at frequency rank #47,175, classified as anoun. 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 92093, this pair ranks #2,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mab vs maim

Shared letters: am. Private to "mab": b. Private to "maim": i.

"mab" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "maim" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maim ← amim · maimm · mmaim

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mab" and "maim" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mab" is a noun and "maim" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mab" vs "maim" - which ranks higher?
"maim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,918 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 "maim".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mab" 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 #2,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mab" and "maim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mab 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 #2,853 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