this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
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So about english; maize is the plant and corn the product? Or are they used interchangeably?
maize is the name for the plant, maze is the english word for labyrinth. therefore, this is a maize maze. Bonus points if it's really cool, because then it could be called the amazing maize maze. If it belongs to someone named Maisey, it would be Maisey's amazing maize maze.
They are mostly used interchangeably. Maize is the older term for corn, and in the US South at least when someone says maize you might get a smaller multicolor cob rather then a yellow one. Reds, blues, purple, all sorts of colors (naturally). It's only yellow and large from years of selected breeding.
Alright, thanks!
Corn used to be a general term for grain kernel. Like wheat corn, spelt corn, oat corn and maize 🌽 corn.
Someone started to use corn interchangeably with maize.
Wait so that means Sweet Corn isn't even corn.
It is, it’s a variety of maize corn.
It might be maize, but it doesn't fit the old definition of corn. Sweet corn is a vegetable when consumed in the immature stage and not a grain.
This is a corn maze. (Not maize) This is a maze made into a corn field by selectively cutting away some of the corn.
The sign is a joke, because you can just walk through the corn in any direction to leave the maze. This is, however, discouraged. (The mazes usually are for the whole family and not particularly hard in the first place.)
In American English at least, "maize" is only used when discussing old varieties of corn developed by Native Americans.
Terms referring to the kernels are combination phrases grain corn, sweet corn, popcorn, indian corn etc.
The plant is a "corn plant".
Maize is rarely used but understood most commonly as "indian maize" as interchangeable with "indian corn".
If you don't know the usage or type it's common to use the general term like "corn field".