Which to use
“mace” and “mages” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,879
- “mace” frequency rank
- #45,499
- “mages” frequency rank
- 64378
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mace | mages |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A heavy fighting club. | plural of mage |
Where the eye mixes mace and mages
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mace with mages
A purely visual mix-up. mace (/meɪs/) and mages (/ˈmeɪ.d͡ʒɪz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mace is recorded at frequency rank #18,879, classified as anoun, pronounced /meɪs/. mages is at rank #45,499, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪ.d͡ʒɪz/.
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 64378, this pair ranks #78,055 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mace vs mages
Shared letters: aem. Private to "mace": c. Private to "mages": gs.
"mace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mace" and "mages" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "mace" vs "mages" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "mace" and "mages" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #78,055 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mace" and "mages" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mages vs MGS". 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 #78,055 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.