mabvsmateWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,175
“mab” frequency rank
#2,743
“mate” frequency rank
49918
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mab mate
Definition A slattern. A fellow, comrade, colleague, partner or someone with whom something is shared, e.g. shipmate, classmate.

Letter map: mab vs mate

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

3 ch
mab
4 ch
mate

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

mab and mate are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49918, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mab is recorded at frequency rank #47,175, classified as anoun. mate is at rank #2,743, tagged as anoun, pronounced /meɪt/.

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 49918, this pair ranks #179,069 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mab vs mate

Shared letters: am. Private to "mab": b. Private to "mate": et.

"mab" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mateamte · mmate · mtae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mab" and "mate" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "mab" or "mate"?
"mate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,743 in our English list, against #47,175 for "mab". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list