Which to use
“mail” and “maxim” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,952
- “mail” frequency rank
- #17,411
- “maxim” frequency rank
- 19363
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maxim | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A bag or wallet. | A self-evident axiom or premise; a pithy expression of a general principle or rule. |
Where the eye mixes mail and maxim
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mail with maxim
A purely visual mix-up. mail (/meɪl/) and maxim (/ˈmæk.sɪm/) 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 19363, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mail is recorded at frequency rank #1,952, classified as anoun, pronounced /meɪl/. maxim is at rank #17,411, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmæk.sɪm/.
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 19363, this pair ranks #438,702 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mail vs maxim
Shared letters: aim. Private to "mail": l. Private to "maxim": x.
"mail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "maxim" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mail" and "maxim" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "mail" vs "maxim" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maxim" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,702 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mail" and "maxim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Malin vs maxim". 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 #438,702 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.