Which to use
“mace” and “mat” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,879
- “mace” frequency rank
- #9,065
- “mat” frequency rank
- 27944
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mace | mat |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A heavy fighting club. | A flat piece of coarse material used for wiping one’s feet, or as a decorative or protective floor covering. |
Where the eye mixes mace and mat
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mace with mat
A purely visual mix-up. mace (/meɪs/) and mat (/mæt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mace is recorded at frequency rank #18,879, classified as anoun, pronounced /meɪs/. mat is at rank #9,065, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mæt/.
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 27944, this pair ranks #374,912 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mace vs mat
Shared letters: am. Private to "mace": ce. Private to "mat": t.
"mace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mat" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mace ← amce · macce · maec · mcae · mmace
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mace" and "mat" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "mace" or "mat" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #374,912 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mace" and "mat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mace vs Marne". 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 #374,912 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.