Which to use
“mates” and “mazes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,248
- “mates” frequency rank
- #42,261
- “mazes” frequency rank
- 49509
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mates | mazes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of mate | plural of maze |
Where the eye mixes mates and mazes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mates and mazes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses mates with mazes
A purely visual mix-up. mates (/meɪts/) and mazes (/ˈmeɪzɪz/) 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 a single letter - t in “mates” becomes z in “mazes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mates is recorded at frequency rank #7,248, classified as anoun, pronounced /meɪts/. mazes is at rank #42,261, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪzɪz/.
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 49509, this pair ranks #182,889 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mates vs mazes
Shared letters: aems. Private to "mates": t. Private to "mazes": z.
"mates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "mazes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mates" and "mazes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "mates" or "mazes" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mates" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mazes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #182,889 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mates" and "mazes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magus vs mazes". 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 #182,889 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.