maimvsmargConfusable pair

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.

Letter map: maim vs marg

Shared letters muted; letters that set maim and marg apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. maim (CVVC) and marg (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
maim
4 ch
marg

Role in the sentence - maim and marg

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

  • maim ← amim · maimm · mmaim
  • marg ← amrg · magr · margg · marrg · mmarg · mrag

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maim" and "marg" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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.

What to do next

Pair "maim" vs "marg" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maim" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marg" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,750 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maim" and "marg" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marg vs Moog". 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 #4,750 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