Which to use
“mailed” is a verb and “maple” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,991
- “mailed” frequency rank
- #8,822
- “maple” frequency rank
- 23813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mailed | maple |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of mail | A tree of the genus Acer, characterised by its usually palmate leaves and winged seeds. |
Where the eye mixes mailed and maple
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mailed and maple
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mailed is /meɪld/ while maple is /ˈmeɪpəl/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mailed is recorded at frequency rank #14,991, classified as averb, pronounced /meɪld/. maple is at rank #8,822, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪpəl/.
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 23813, this pair ranks #406,588 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mailed vs maple
Shared letters: aelm. Private to "mailed": di. Private to "maple": p.
"mailed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "maple" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mailed" for "maple" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mailed" or "maple"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mailed" and "maple" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mailed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maple" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #406,588 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mailed" and "maple" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mailed vs marbled". 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 #406,588 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.