Which to use
“mailed” and “mashed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,991
- “mailed” frequency rank
- #17,410
- “mashed” frequency rank
- 32401
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mailed | mashed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of mail | simple past and past participle of mash |
Where the eye mixes mailed and mashed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mailed and mashed
A purely visual mix-up. mailed (/meɪld/) and mashed (/mæʃt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32401, 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/. mashed is at rank #17,410, tagged as averb, pronounced /mæʃt/.
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 32401, this pair ranks #338,095 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mailed vs mashed
Shared letters: adem. Private to "mailed": il. Private to "mashed": hs.
"mailed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "mashed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mailed" and "mashed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "mailed" or "mashed" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "mailed" and "mashed" 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 "mashed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #338,095 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mailed" and "mashed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mashed vs Masood". 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 #338,095 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.