mailsvsmaloConfusable pair

Quick tell: mails is a verb, malo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mails” is a verb and “malo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,635
“mails” frequency rank
#48,879
“malo” frequency rank
61514
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mails malo
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of mail malolactic fermentation

Letter map: mails vs malo

Shared letters muted; letters that set mails and malo apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
mails
4 ch
malo

Grammar separator: mails vs malo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mails is averb and maloanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mails is recorded at frequency rank #12,635, classified as averb, pronounced /meɪlz/. malo is at rank #48,879, tagged as anoun.

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 61514, this pair ranks #93,808 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mails vs malo

Shared letters: alm. Private to "mails": is. Private to "malo": o.

"mails" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "malo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mailsamils · maills · mailss · maisl · malis · mials · mmails
  • maloamlo · mallo · maol · mmalo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mails" for "malo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mails" is a verb and "malo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mails" vs "malo" - which ranks higher?
"mails" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,635 in our English list, against #48,879 for "malo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "mails" and "malo". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mails" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "malo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,808 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mails" and "malo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malo vs mela". 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 #93,808 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