maimvsmargWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#44,918
“maim” frequency rank
#44,926
“marg” frequency rank
89844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maim marg
Definition To wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body. Clipping of margarine.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set maim and marg apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
maim
4 ch
marg

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maim is averb and marganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maim is recorded at frequency rank #44,918, classified as averb, pronounced /meɪm/. marg is at rank #44,926, 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 89844, this pair ranks #4,750 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maim vs marg

Shared letters: am. Private to "maim": i. Private to "marg": gr.

"maim" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "marg" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maimamim · maimm · mmaim
  • margamrg · magr · margg · marrg · mmarg · mrag

Frequency comparison

maim#44,918
marg#44,926

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maim" and "marg" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maim" is a verb and "marg" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maim" or "marg"?
"maim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,918 in our English list, against #44,926 for "marg". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering maim vs marg

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “maim”; for a noun, it's “marg”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “maim” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list