makesvsMayesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: makes is a verb, Mayes is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“makes” is a verb and “Mayes” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#330
“makes” frequency rank
#46,054
“Mayes” frequency rank
46384
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature makes Mayes
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of make A surname.

Letter map: makes vs Mayes

Shared letters muted; letters that set makes and Mayes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. makes (CVCVC) and Mayes (CVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
makes
5 ch
Mayes

Part-of-speech tell for makes / Mayes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: makes is averb and Mayesaname. On the page they differ by a single letter - k in “makes” becomes y in “Mayes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

makes is recorded at frequency rank #330, classified as averb, pronounced /meɪks/. Mayes is at rank #46,054, tagged as aname.

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 46384, this pair ranks #212,275 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of makes vs Mayes

Shared letters: aems. Private to "makes": k. Private to "Mayes": y.

"makes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Mayes" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • makes ← amkes · maeks · makess · makkes · makse · mkaes · mmakes
  • Mayes ← amyes · maeys · mayess · mayse · mayyes · mmayes · myaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "makes" and "Mayes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "makes" is a verb and "Mayes" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "makes" or "Mayes" show up more?
"makes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #330 in our English list, against #46,054 for "Mayes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "makes" and "Mayes".

  • Full dictionary entry for "makes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mayes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #212,275 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "makes" and "Mayes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magus vs Mayes". 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 #212,275 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