Which to use
“mail” is a noun and “mild” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,952
- “mail” frequency rank
- #5,982
- “mild” frequency rank
- 7934
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mild | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A bag or wallet. | Gentle and not easily angered. |
Where the eye mixes mail and mild
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mail is /meɪl/ while mild is /ˈmaɪld/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7934, 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/. mild is at rank #5,982, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmaɪld/.
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 7934, this pair ranks #504,884 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mail vs mild
Shared letters: ilm. Private to "mail": a. Private to "mild": d.
"mail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "mild" · 4 letters · shape CVCC