Which to use
“mate” is a noun and “mature” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,743
- “mate” frequency rank
- #4,467
- “mature” frequency rank
- 7210
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mate | mature |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A fellow, comrade, colleague, partner or someone with whom something is shared, e.g. shipmate, classmate. | Fully developed; grown up in terms of physical appearance, behaviour or thinking; ripe. |
Where the eye mixes mate and mature
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mate is /meɪt/ while mature is /məˈt͡ʃɔː(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7210, 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/. mature is at rank #4,467, tagged as anadj, pronounced /məˈt͡ʃɔː(ɹ)/.
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 7210, this pair ranks #508,096 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mate vs mature
Shared letters: aemt. Private to "mate": -. Private to "mature": ru.
"mate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mature" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV