magusvsMayesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#46,600
“magus” frequency rank
#46,054
“Mayes” frequency rank
92654
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magus Mayes
Definition A magician; (derogatory) a conjurer or sorcerer, especially one who is a charlatan or trickster. A surname.

Letter map: magus vs Mayes

Shared letters muted; letters that set magus and Mayes apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. magus (CVCVC) and Mayes (CVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
magus
5 ch
Mayes

Role in the sentence - magus and Mayes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: magus is anoun and Mayesaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92654, 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/. Mayes is at rank #46,054, tagged as aname.

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 92654, this pair ranks #2,433 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of magus vs Mayes

Shared letters: ams. Private to "magus": gu. Private to "Mayes": ey.

"magus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Mayes" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magus ← amgus · maggus · magsu · maguss · maugs · mgaus · mmagus
  • Mayes ← amyes · maeys · mayess · mayse · mayyes · mmayes · myaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "magus" for "Mayes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "magus" is a noun and "Mayes" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "magus" vs "Mayes" - which ranks higher?
"Mayes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,054 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

You've compared "magus" and "Mayes". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "magus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mayes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,433 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "magus" and "Mayes" 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 #2,433 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