MayesvsmazesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#46,054
“Mayes” frequency rank
#42,261
“mazes” frequency rank
88315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mayes mazes
Definition A surname. plural of maze

Letter map: Mayes vs mazes

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mayes and mazes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
Mayes
5 ch
mazes

Role in the sentence - Mayes and mazes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Mayes is aname and mazesanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - y in “Mayes” becomes z in “mazes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mayes is recorded at frequency rank #46,054, classified as aname. 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 88315, this pair ranks #6,506 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Mayes vs mazes

Shared letters: aems. Private to "Mayes": y. Private to "mazes": z.

"Mayes" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "mazes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mayesamyes · maeys · mayess · mayse · mayyes · mmayes · myaes
  • mazesamzes · maezs · mazess · mazse · mazzes · mmazes · mzaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mayes" and "mazes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mayes" is a name and "mazes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Mayes" or "mazes"?
"mazes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,261 in our English list, against #46,054 for "Mayes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "Mayes" vs "mazes" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mayes" 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 #6,506 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mayes" and "mazes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magus vs Mayes". 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 #6,506 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list