Which to use
“madre” is a noun and “maze” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,769
- “madre” frequency rank
- #40,371
- “maze” frequency rank
- 74140
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | madre | maze |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bois veiné, ou tacheté issus du cœur ou de la racine et généralement utilisé pour confectionner des récipients pour boire | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de mazer. |
Where the eye mixes madre and maze
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. madre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against maze's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: madre vs maze
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: madre is \madʁ\ while maze is \maz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
madre is recorded at frequency rank #33,769, classified as anoun, pronounced \madʁ\. maze is at rank #40,371, tagged as averb, pronounced \maz\.
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 74140, this pair ranks #38,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of madre vs maze
Shared letters: aem. Private to "madre": dr. Private to "maze": z.
"madre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "maze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "madre" and "maze" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "madre" or "maze"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "madre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #38,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "madre" and "maze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid 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 #38,136 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.