mahivsmaxWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mahi is a noun, max is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mahi” is a noun and “max” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,904
“mahi” frequency rank
#2,222
“max” frequency rank
42126
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mahi max
Definition the work required to complete a task Maximum; maximal.

Letter map: mahi vs max

Shared letters muted; letters that set mahi and max apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mahi
3 ch
max

Part-of-speech tell for mahi / max

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mahi is anoun and maxanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42126, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mahi is recorded at frequency rank #39,904, classified as anoun. max is at rank #2,222, tagged as anadj, pronounced /mæks/.

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 42126, this pair ranks #252,075 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mahi vs max

Shared letters: am. Private to "mahi": hi. Private to "max": x.

"mahi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "max" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mahiamhi · mahhi · maih · mhai · mmahi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mahi" for "max" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mahi" is a noun and "max" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mahi" vs "max" - which ranks higher?
"max" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,222 in our English list, against #39,904 for "mahi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "mahi" vs "max" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mahi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "max" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,075 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mahi" and "max" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mahi vs marl". 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 #252,075 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