Which to use
“madge” and “mages” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,174
- “madge” frequency rank
- #45,499
- “mages” frequency rank
- 79673
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | madge | mages |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The barn owl. | plural of mage |
Where the eye mixes madge and mages
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. madge (CVCCV) and mages (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses madge with mages
A purely visual mix-up. madge (/mæd͡ʒ/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
madge is recorded at frequency rank #34,174, classified as anoun, pronounced /mæd͡ʒ/. 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 79673, this pair ranks #21,524 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of madge vs mages
Shared letters: aegm. Private to "madge": d. Private to "mages": s.
"madge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "madge" and "mages" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "madge" or "mages"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "madge" and "mages" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "madge" 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 #21,524 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "madge" 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 #21,524 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.