Which to use
“magus” and “modus” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,600
- “magus” frequency rank
- #31,659
- “modus” frequency rank
- 78259
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | magus | modus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A magician; (derogatory) a conjurer or sorcerer, especially one who is a charlatan or trickster. | The arrangement of, or mode of expressing, the terms of a contract or conveyance. |
Where the eye mixes magus and modus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. magus and modus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: magus vs modus
A purely visual mix-up. magus (/ˈmeɪɡəs/) and modus (/ˈməʊdəs/) 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 78259, 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/. modus is at rank #31,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈməʊdəs/.
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 78259, this pair ranks #25,059 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of magus vs modus
Shared letters: msu. Private to "magus": ag. Private to "modus": do.
"magus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "modus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "magus" and "modus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "magus" or "modus" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "magus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "modus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #25,059 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "magus" and "modus" 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 #25,059 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.