Which to use
“majesty” and “modesty” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,588
- “majesty” frequency rank
- #21,286
- “modesty” frequency rank
- 27874
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | majesty | modesty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The quality of being impressive, great, dignified, powerful, sovereign, or any combination thereof. | The quality of being modest; having a limited and not overly high opinion of oneself and one's abilities. |
Where the eye mixes majesty and modesty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. majesty and modesty follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: majesty vs modesty
A purely visual mix-up. majesty (/ˈmæd͡ʒ.əs.ti/) and modesty (/ˈmɒd.ə.sti/) 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 27874, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
majesty is recorded at frequency rank #6,588, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmæd͡ʒ.əs.ti/. modesty is at rank #21,286, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɒd.ə.sti/.
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 27874, this pair ranks #375,431 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of majesty vs modesty
Shared letters: emsty. Private to "majesty": aj. Private to "modesty": do.
"majesty" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "modesty" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "majesty" for "modesty" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "majesty" or "modesty" 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 "majesty" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "modesty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #375,431 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "majesty" and "modesty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "modesty vs Moresby". 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 #375,431 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.