maimvsmaxiTell them apart

Quick tell: maim is a verb, maxi is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#44,918
“maim” frequency rank
#20,702
“maxi” frequency rank
65620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maim maxi
Definition To wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body. Having a hemline at ankle length.

Letter map: maim vs maxi

Shared letters muted; letters that set maim and maxi apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
maim
4 ch
maxi

Part-of-speech tell for maim / maxi

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maim is averb and maxianadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65620, 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/. maxi is at rank #20,702, tagged as anadj.

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 65620, this pair ranks #71,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maim vs maxi

Shared letters: aim. Private to "maim": -. Private to "maxi": x.

"maim" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "maxi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maimamim · maimm · mmaim
  • maxiamxi · maix · maxxi · mmaxi · mxai

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maim" and "maxi" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maim" is a verb and "maxi" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "maim" or "maxi" show up more?
"maxi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,702 in our English list, against #44,918 for "maim". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "maim" vs "maxi" 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 "maxi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maim" and "maxi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maim 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 #71,867 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