Mana or manna?
mana is a noun meaning “Magical energy”; manna is a noun meaning “Food miraculously produced for the Israelites in the desert in the book of…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) mana is about 3.1 times as common as manna.
What is the difference between mana and manna?
| mana | manna | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | Power, prestige; specifically, a form of supernatural energy in Polynesian religion that inheres in things or people Magical energy | Food miraculously produced for the Israelites in the desert in the book of Exodus Any boon which comes into one's hands by good luck |
| Example | But in popular estimation their essential virtue derived from the personal mana of the sovereign | none recorded |
| Forms | manas | mannas |
| Pronunciation | /ˈmɑː.nə/ /ˈmæ-/ /ˈmɑ.nə/ | /ˈmænə/ |
| In writing | 1.9 times per million words | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: mana and manna in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of mana and manna
mana
- 1
Power, prestige; specifically, a form of supernatural energy in Polynesian religion that inheres in things or people
But in popular estimation their essential virtue derived from the personal mana of the sovereign
- 2
Alternative form of mina (“ancient unit of weight or currency”)
- 3
Alternative spelling of manna
- 4
Magical energy
manna
- 1
Food miraculously produced for the Israelites in the desert in the book of Exodus
- 2
Any boon which comes into one's hands by good luck
- 3
The sugary sap of the manna gum tree which oozes out from holes drilled by insects and falls to the ground around the tree
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, mana or manna?
mana appears 1.9 times per million words; manna about once in every 2 million words.
mana 1.9 times per million wordsmanna about once in every 2 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search mana vs manna?
“mana vs manna” is searched about 10 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.