Which to use
“mages” and “mares” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,499
- “mages” frequency rank
- #29,365
- “mares” frequency rank
- 74864
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mages | mares |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of mage | plural of mare |
Where the eye mixes mages and mares
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mages and mares follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: mages vs mares
A purely visual mix-up. mages (/ˈmeɪ.d͡ʒɪz/) and mares (/mɛɹz/) 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 a single letter - g in “mages” becomes r in “mares”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74864, 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/. mares is at rank #29,365, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɛɹz/.
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 74864, this pair ranks #34,954 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mages vs mares
Shared letters: aems. Private to "mages": g. Private to "mares": r.
"mages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "mares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mages" and "mares" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "mages" vs "mares" - 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 "mages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mares" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #34,954 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mages" and "mares" 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 #34,954 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.