magusvsmapsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,600
“magus” frequency rank
#3,508
“maps” frequency rank
50108
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magus maps
Definition A magician; (derogatory) a conjurer or sorcerer, especially one who is a charlatan or trickster. plural of map

Where the eye mixes magus and maps

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
magus
4 ch
maps

Look-alike desk: magus vs maps

A purely visual mix-up. magus (/ˈmeɪɡəs/) and maps (/mæps/) 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 50108, 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/. maps is at rank #3,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mæps/.

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 50108, this pair ranks #177,292 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of magus vs maps

Shared letters: ams. Private to "magus": gu. Private to "maps": p.

"magus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "maps" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magusamgus · maggus · magsu · maguss · maugs · mgaus · mmagus
  • mapsmapps · mapss · masp · mmaps · mpas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "magus" and "maps" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmeɪɡəs/ versus /mæps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "magus" or "maps" show up more?
"maps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,508 in our English list, against #46,600 for "magus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "magus" and "maps" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "magus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #177,292 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "magus" and "maps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magus 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 #177,292 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