mazevsmoveWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: maze is a noun, move is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maze” is a noun and “move” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,102
“maze” frequency rank
#447
“move” frequency rank
12549
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maze move
Definition A labyrinth; a puzzle consisting of a complicated network of paths or passages, the aim of which is to find one's way through. To change place or posture; to go, in any manner, from one place or position to another.

Where the eye mixes maze and move

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
maze
4 ch
move

Visual trap between maze and move

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maze is /ˈmeɪz/ while move is /muːv/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12549, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maze is recorded at frequency rank #12,102, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪz/. move is at rank #447, tagged as averb, pronounced /muːv/.

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 12549, this pair ranks #480,922 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maze vs move

Shared letters: em. Private to "maze": az. Private to "move": ov.

"maze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "move" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mazeamze · maez · mazze · mmaze · mzae
  • movemmove · moev · movve · mvoe · omve

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maze" and "move" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maze" is a noun and "move" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maze" or "move"?
"move" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #447 in our English list, against #12,102 for "maze". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "move" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #480,922 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maze" and "move" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Marne vs maze". 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 #480,922 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