Which to use
“maimed” is an adjective and “mashed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,651
- “maimed” frequency rank
- #17,410
- “mashed” frequency rank
- 54061
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maimed | mashed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partially or wholly deprived of the use of some part of the body, usually by wounding or injury. | simple past and past participle of mash |
Where the eye mixes maimed and mashed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. maimed (CVVCVC) and mashed (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between maimed and mashed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maimed is /meɪmd/ while mashed is /mæʃt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maimed is recorded at frequency rank #36,651, classified as anadj, pronounced /meɪmd/. mashed is at rank #17,410, tagged as averb, pronounced /mæʃt/.
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 54061, this pair ranks #144,030 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maimed vs mashed
Shared letters: adem. Private to "maimed": i. Private to "mashed": hs.
"maimed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "mashed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maimed" and "mashed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "maimed" vs "mashed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "maimed" and "mashed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maimed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mashed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #144,030 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maimed" and "mashed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maim vs maimed". 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 #144,030 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.