Which to use
“male” is an adjective and “mates” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,371
- “male” frequency rank
- #7,248
- “mates” frequency rank
- 8619
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | male | mates |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to the gender which is typically associated with it. | plural of mate |
Where the eye mixes male and mates
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: male is /meɪl/ while mates is /meɪts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 8619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
male is recorded at frequency rank #1,371, classified as anadj, pronounced /meɪl/. mates is at rank #7,248, tagged as anoun, pronounced /meɪts/.
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 8619, this pair ranks #501,586 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of male vs mates
Shared letters: aem. Private to "male": l. Private to "mates": st.
"male" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC