MaisvsmicConfusable pair

Quick tell: Mais is a name, mic is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Mais” is a name and “mic” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,490
“Mais” frequency rank
#9,498
“mic” frequency rank
39988
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mais mic
Definition A surname. Alternative form of mike (“microphone”).

Letter map: Mais vs mic

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mais and mic apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Mais
3 ch
mic

Role in the sentence - Mais and mic

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Mais is aname and micanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39988, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mais is recorded at frequency rank #30,490, classified as aname. mic is at rank #9,498, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɪk/.

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 39988, this pair ranks #271,668 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mais vs mic

Shared letters: im. Private to "Mais": as. Private to "mic": c.

"Mais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mic" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maismaiss · masi · mias · mmais

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mais" and "mic" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mais" is a name and "mic" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Mais" or "mic" show up more?
"mic" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,498 in our English list, against #30,490 for "Mais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Mais" and "mic".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mic" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #271,668 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mais" and "mic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mais vs MGS". 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 #271,668 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