Which to use
“maize” and “mazes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,616
- “maize” frequency rank
- #42,261
- “mazes” frequency rank
- 60877
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maize | mazes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Corn; a type of grain of the species Zea mays. | plural of maze |
Where the eye mixes maize and mazes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses maize with mazes
A purely visual mix-up. maize (/meɪz/) and mazes (/ˈmeɪzɪz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60877, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maize is recorded at frequency rank #18,616, classified as anoun, pronounced /meɪz/. mazes is at rank #42,261, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪzɪz/.
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 60877, this pair ranks #97,605 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maize vs mazes
Shared letters: aemz. Private to "maize": i. Private to "mazes": s.
"maize" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "mazes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maize" and "mazes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "maize" or "mazes"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "maize" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mazes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #97,605 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maize" and "mazes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magus vs mazes". 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 #97,605 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.