Which to use
“magus” and “mates” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,600
- “magus” frequency rank
- #7,248
- “mates” frequency rank
- 53848
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | magus | mates |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A magician; (derogatory) a conjurer or sorcerer, especially one who is a charlatan or trickster. | plural of mate |
Where the eye mixes magus and mates
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. magus and mates follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses magus with mates
A purely visual mix-up. magus (/ˈmeɪɡəs/) and mates (/meɪts/) 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 53848, 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/. mates is at rank #7,248, tagged as anoun, pronounced /meɪts/.
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 53848, this pair ranks #145,693 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of magus vs mates
Shared letters: ams. Private to "magus": gu. Private to "mates": et.
"magus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "mates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "magus" and "mates" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "magus" or "mates" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "magus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #145,693 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "magus" and "mates" 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 #145,693 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.