Which to use
“mate” and “mates” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,743
- “mate” frequency rank
- #7,248
- “mates” frequency rank
- 9991
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mate | mates |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A fellow, comrade, colleague, partner or someone with whom something is shared, e.g. shipmate, classmate. | plural of mate |
Where the eye mixes mate and mates
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. mate (/meɪt/) and mates (/meɪts/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mate” sits inside “mates”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9991, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mate is recorded at frequency rank #2,743, classified as anoun, pronounced /meɪt/. 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 9991, this pair ranks #494,575 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mate vs mates
Shared letters: aemt. Private to "mate": -. Private to "mates": s.
"mate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC