Which to use
“mah” is a determiner and “Mahdi” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,174
- “mah” frequency rank
- #37,417
- “Mahdi” frequency rank
- 71591
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mah | Mahdi |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mon, ma. | Variante orthographique de Mahdy. |
Where the eye mixes mah and Mahdi
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mah runs 3 letters (CVC) against Mahdi's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: mah vs Mahdi
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mah is \mɑː\ while Mahdi is \ma.di\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “mah” sits inside “Mahdi”, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71591, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mah is recorded at frequency rank #34,174, classified as adet, pronounced \mɑː\. Mahdi is at rank #37,417, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.di\.
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 71591, this pair ranks #47,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mah vs Mahdi
Shared letters: ahm. Private to "mah": -. Private to "Mahdi": di.
"mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "Mahdi" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- Mahdi ← amhdi · madhi · mahddi · mahhdi · mahid · mhadi · mmahdi
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mah" for "Mahdi" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mah" vs "Mahdi" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mah" and "Mahdi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Mahdi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #47,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mah" and "Mahdi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mahdi vs maid". 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 #47,027 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.