magusvsmathsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,600
“magus” frequency rank
#10,397
“maths” frequency rank
56997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magus maths
Definition A magician; (derogatory) a conjurer or sorcerer, especially one who is a charlatan or trickster. Clipping of mathematics.

Where the eye mixes magus and maths

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. magus (CVCVC) and maths (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
magus
5 ch
maths

Look-alike desk: magus vs maths

A purely visual mix-up. magus (/ˈmeɪɡəs/) and maths (/mæθs/) 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 56997, 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/. maths is at rank #10,397, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mæθs/.

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 56997, this pair ranks #122,291 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of magus vs maths

Shared letters: ams. Private to "magus": gu. Private to "maths": ht.

"magus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "maths" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magus ← amgus · maggus · magsu · maguss · maugs · mgaus · mmagus
  • maths ← amths · mahts · mathhs · mathss · matsh · matths · mmaths · mtahs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "magus" and "maths" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmeɪɡəs/ versus /mæθs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "magus" vs "maths" - which ranks higher?
"maths" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,397 in our English list, against #46,600 for "magus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "maths" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,291 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "magus" and "maths" 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 #122,291 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