magevsmoeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“mage” and “moe” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#26,873
“mage” frequency rank
#15,003
“moe” frequency rank
41876
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mage moe
Definition A magician, wizard, sorcerer, witch, warlock or mystic. Strong interest in, and especially fetishistic attraction towards, fictional characters in anime, manga, video games, and/or similar media.

Where the eye mixes mage and moe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mage
3 ch
moe

Look-alike desk: mage vs moe

A purely visual mix-up. mage (/meɪd͡ʒ/) and moe (/ˈməʊ.eɪ/) 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 41876, 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/. moe is at rank #15,003, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈməʊ.eɪ/.

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 41876, this pair ranks #254,345 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mage vs moe

Shared letters: em. Private to "mage": ag. Private to "moe": o.

"mage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "moe" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mageamge · maeg · magge · mgae · mmage

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mage" and "moe" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/meɪd͡ʒ/ versus /ˈməʊ.eɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mage" or "moe"?
"moe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,003 in our English list, against #26,873 for "mage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "moe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #254,345 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mage" and "moe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mage 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 #254,345 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list