maize
/meɪz/noun
maize is spelled M-A-I-Z-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,537th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “maize vs maze” about 40 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, maize means “Corn; a type of grain of the species Zea mays” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of maize is maizes.
How many letters and syllables are in maize?
| Letters | 5: M-A-I-Z-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.2 times per million words; the 18,537th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is maize?
Maize appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,537th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce maize?
- /meɪz/
- Canada [meːz]
Maize has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-maize.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with maize
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: maze (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of maize
- maizes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does maize mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Corn; a type of grain of the species Zea mays.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Maize in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense corn; a type of grain of the species Zea mays:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | maïs, blé d'Inde |
| German | Mais, Kukuruz, Türken, Türkenkorn, Türkisch Korn, Türkischer Weizen |
| Portuguese | milho, abati |
| Spanish | maíz, elote, choclo, millo, jojoto, panizo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does maize come from?
Borrowed from Spanish maíz, from Taíno *mahis, *mahisi, from Proto-Arawak *marikɨ. Cognate with Lokono marisi, Wayuu maiki.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).