Which to use
“mages” and “manus” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,499
- “mages” frequency rank
- #33,726
- “manus” frequency rank
- 79225
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mages | manus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of mage | A hand, as the part of the fore limb below the forearm in a human, or the corresponding part in other vertebrates. |
Where the eye mixes mages and manus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mages and manus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between mages and manus
A purely visual mix-up. mages (/ˈmeɪ.d͡ʒɪz/) and manus (/ˈmeɪnəs/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79225, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mages is recorded at frequency rank #45,499, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪ.d͡ʒɪz/. manus is at rank #33,726, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪnəs/.
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 79225, this pair ranks #22,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mages vs manus
Shared letters: ams. Private to "mages": eg. Private to "manus": nu.
"mages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "manus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mages" for "manus" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "mages" or "manus" show up more?
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 "mages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "manus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #22,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mages" and "manus" 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 #22,624 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.