Maine
/mɛn/
"maine" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Maine” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,517 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #5,517
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A former province of Pays de la Loire, France. Capital: Le Mans.
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 | Maine |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /mɛn/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,517 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Maine” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Maine is 5 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɛn/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,517 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for Maine, with forms such as "maien", "mainne", and "manie". 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, "man", "min", "Mie", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: The US state is from French Maine, named by its French explorers after the province in France with the same name; unrelated to the name of the river that flows through it. From Old French Cemaine, from Latin *Cenomania, from the name of the Gaulish Cenomani… The correct English form is Maine, spelled M-A-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1A former province of Pays de la Loire, France. Capital: Le Mans.
- 2A state of the United States; probably named for the province in France. Capital: Augusta. Largest city: Portland.
- 3A town in New York.
- 4A town in Outagamie County, Wisconsin; named for the state.
- 5A river in Maine, United States, flowing 5.5 miles from Pocomoonshine Lake in Princeton into Crawford Lake in Crawford.
- 6University of Maine.
Etymology
The US state is from French Maine, named by its French explorers after the province in France with the same name; unrelated to the name of the river that flows through it. From Old French Cemaine, from Latin *Cenomania, from the name of the Gaulish Cenomani tribe of Gallia Celtica. The word was rebracketed as ce (“this”) + Maine, and the ce- was lost by the 12th century.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: maien,mainne,manie,miane,mmaine
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Maine - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
How do you spell "Maine"?
What does "Maine" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "Maine"?
How do you pronounce "Maine"?
What is the origin of the word "Maine"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “Maine”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-I-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɛn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “man” - see the side-by-side comparison. Maine vs man
- 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.