Which to use
“mails” and “miss” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,635
- “mails” frequency rank
- #609
- “miss” frequency rank
- 13244
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mails | miss |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of mail | To fail to hit, catch, grasp, etc. |
Where the eye mixes mails and miss
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mails and miss
A purely visual mix-up. mails (/meɪlz/) and miss (/mɪs/) 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 13244, 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/. miss is at rank #609, tagged as averb, pronounced /mɪs/.
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 13244, this pair ranks #476,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mails vs miss
Shared letters: ims. Private to "mails": al. Private to "miss": -.
"mails" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "miss" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mails" and "miss" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "mails" or "miss"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mails" and "miss" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mails" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "miss" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #476,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mails" and "miss" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mails vs marl". 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 #476,925 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.