magusvsmailsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: magus is a noun, mails is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“magus” is a noun and “mails” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,600
“magus” frequency rank
#12,635
“mails” frequency rank
59235
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magus mails
Definition A magician; (derogatory) a conjurer or sorcerer, especially one who is a charlatan or trickster. third-person singular simple present indicative of mail

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set magus and mails apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
magus
5 ch
mails

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

magus and mails form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59235, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

magus is recorded at frequency rank #46,600, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪɡəs/. mails is at rank #12,635, tagged as averb, pronounced /meɪlz/.

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 59235, this pair ranks #107,483 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Frequency comparison

magus#46,600
mails#12,635

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "magus" and "mails" be used interchangeably?
No, "magus" and "mails" have distinct meanings and cannot be swapped without changing the meaning of a sentence. Understanding the specific definition and context for each word is essential for correct usage.

Remembering magus vs mails

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “magus”; for a verb, it's “mails”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “magus” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list