madrevsmapleTell them apart

Which to use

“madre” and “maple” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#287
“madre” frequency rank
#43,116
“maple” frequency rank
43403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature madre maple
Definition Progenitora de sexo femenino. Huevera grande, con capacidad para treinta o más huevos.

Where the eye mixes madre and maple

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. madre and maple follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
madre
5 ch
maple

Look-alike desk: madre vs maple

A purely visual mix-up. madre ([ˈmað̞ɾe]) and maple ([ˈmaple]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

madre is recorded at frequency rank #287, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmað̞ɾe]. maple is at rank #43,116, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaple].

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 43403, this pair ranks #142,837 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of madre vs maple

Shared letters: aem. Private to "madre": dr. Private to "maple": lp.

"madre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "maple" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • madre ← amdre · maddre · mader · madrre · marde · mdare · mmadre
  • maple ← ample · malpe · mapel · maplle · mapple · mmaple · mpale

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "madre" and "maple" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmað̞ɾe] versus [ˈmaple]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "madre" or "maple"?
"madre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #287 in our Spanish list, against #43,116 for "maple". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "madre" and "maple" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "madre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maple" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #142,837 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "madre" and "maple" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maple vs maybe". 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 #142,837 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list