Which to use
“mages” is a noun and “mated” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,499
- “mages” frequency rank
- #32,074
- “mated” frequency rank
- 77573
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mages | mated |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of mage | simple past and past participle of mate |
Where the eye mixes mages and mated
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mages and mated 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 mated
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mages is /ˈmeɪ.d͡ʒɪz/ while mated is /ˈmeɪtɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77573, 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/. mated is at rank #32,074, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈmeɪtɪd/.
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 77573, this pair ranks #26,886 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mages vs mated
Shared letters: aem. Private to "mages": gs. Private to "mated": dt.
"mages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "mated" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mages" and "mated" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "mages" vs "mated" - which ranks higher?
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 "mages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mated" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,886 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mages" and "mated" 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 #26,886 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.