Which to use
“mage” and “magus” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,873
- “mage” frequency rank
- #46,600
- “magus” frequency rank
- 73473
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mage | magus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A magician, wizard, sorcerer, witch, warlock or mystic. | A magician; (derogatory) a conjurer or sorcerer, especially one who is a charlatan or trickster. |
Where the eye mixes mage and magus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mage and magus
A purely visual mix-up. mage (/meɪd͡ʒ/) and magus (/ˈmeɪɡəs/) 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 73473, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mage is recorded at frequency rank #26,873, classified as anoun, pronounced /meɪd͡ʒ/. magus is at rank #46,600, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪɡəs/.
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 73473, this pair ranks #39,498 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mage vs magus
Shared letters: agm. Private to "mage": e. Private to "magus": su.
"mage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "magus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mage" and "magus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "mage" vs "magus" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "magus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #39,498 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mage" and "magus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magus 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 #39,498 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.