matevsMTVWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mate is a noun, MTV is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mate” is a noun and “MTV” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,743
“mate” frequency rank
#8,696
“MTV” frequency rank
11439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mate MTV
Definition A fellow, comrade, colleague, partner or someone with whom something is shared, e.g. shipmate, classmate. A television channel that originally showed mostly music videos but now shows a wide variety of content.

Letter map: mate vs MTV

Shared letters muted; letters that set mate and MTV apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mate
3 ch
MTV

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mate is anoun and MTVaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11439, 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/. MTV is at rank #8,696, 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 11439, this pair ranks #487,036 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mate vs MTV

Shared letters: mt. Private to "mate": ae. Private to "MTV": v.

"mate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "MTV" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mateamte · mmate · mtae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mate" and "MTV" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mate" is a noun and "MTV" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mate" or "MTV"?
"mate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,743 in our English list, against #8,696 for "MTV". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list