Maher
/ˈmɑː(ɹ)/
"maher" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Maher” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #18,880 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #18,880
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A surname from Irish.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Maher |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɑː(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #18,880 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Maher” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Maher is 5 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɑː(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #18,880 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A surname from Irish.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for Maher, with forms such as "amher", "maehr", and "maherr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mar", "mer", "make", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Meachair (“descendant of Meachar”), a personal name meaning "fine", "majestic". The correct English form is Maher, spelled M-A-H-E-R.
Definition
- 1A surname from Irish.
Etymology
Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Meachair (“descendant of Meachar”), a personal name meaning "fine", "majestic".
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amher,maehr,maherr,mahher,mahre,mhaer,mmaher
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Maher - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Maher”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-H-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɑː(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “mar” - see the side-by-side comparison. Maher vs mar
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.