Which to use
“maimed” is an adjective and “mime” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,651
- “maimed” frequency rank
- #26,885
- “mime” frequency rank
- 63536
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maimed | mime |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partially or wholly deprived of the use of some part of the body, usually by wounding or injury. | A form of acting without words; pantomime. |
Where the eye mixes maimed and mime
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. maimed runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against mime's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between maimed and mime
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maimed is /meɪmd/ while mime is /maɪm/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63536, 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/. mime is at rank #26,885, tagged as anoun, pronounced /maɪm/.
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 63536, this pair ranks #82,427 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maimed vs mime
Shared letters: eim. Private to "maimed": ad. Private to "mime": -.
"maimed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "mime" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maimed" and "mime" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "maimed" or "mime"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "maimed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #82,427 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maimed" and "mime" 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 #82,427 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.