Maze vs Labyrinth
Are they the same? In daily use, yes. In a stricter sense, no, and the difference is whether you ever have to choose.
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Usually the same
Most dictionaries and reference works treat "labyrinth" as generally synonymous with "maze". In everyday speech you can use either word for a puzzle of winding paths.
The stricter distinction
Some writers use "labyrinth" for a pattern with a single path, one that winds to the center without any branches, so you cannot get lost. A maze, in this sense, is a puzzle with branching paths where you must choose which way to go and may reach dead ends. Wikipedia describes a maze as either a branching tour puzzle or a simpler non-branching pattern, which shows that even reference works use the terms loosely.
Famous examples
The Hampton Court Palace maze, in the palace gardens, is a famous historic hedge maze. Larger ones exist: the Samsø Labyrinten in Denmark is described as the world's largest permanent maze at 60,000 square meters.
On paper
The printable mazes here have a start, a finish and dead ends, so they are mazes in the stricter sense. Each comes with an answer page.
Make a mazeEasy to hard sizes, with an answer page for each.
Open the tool →
Sources
Checked on October 15, 2026. We summarize in our own words and only state what these sources support.
- Wikipedia: Maze — terminology and examples