Which to use
“man” and “mason” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #148
- “man” frequency rank
- #5,709
- “mason” frequency rank
- 5857
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | man | mason |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An adult male human. | A bricklayer, one whose occupation is to build with stone or brick. |
Where the eye mixes man and mason
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses man with mason
A purely visual mix-up. man (/ˈmæn/) and mason (/ˈmeɪsən/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
man is recorded at frequency rank #148, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmæn/. mason is at rank #5,709, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪsən/.
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 5857, this pair ranks #513,740 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of man vs mason
Shared letters: amn. Private to "man": -. Private to "mason": os.
"man" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "mason" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mason ← amson · maosn · masno · masonn · masson · mmason · msaon
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "man" and "mason" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "man" vs "mason" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "man" and "mason" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "man" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mason" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #513,740 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "man" and "mason" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mason vs Masood". 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 #513,740 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.