mangvsmanusWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“mang” and “manus” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,250
“mang” frequency rank
#33,726
“manus” frequency rank
76976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mang manus
Definition Alternative form of man (suggesting a Spanish accent) A hand, as the part of the fore limb below the forearm in a human, or the corresponding part in other vertebrates.

Where the eye mixes mang and manus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mang runs 4 letters (CVCC) against manus's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mang
5 ch
manus

Why the eye confuses mang with manus

A purely visual mix-up. mang (/mæŋ/) and manus (/ˈmeɪnəs/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mang is recorded at frequency rank #43,250, classified as anoun, pronounced /mæŋ/. manus is at rank #33,726, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪnəs/.

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 76976, this pair ranks #28,592 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mang vs manus

Shared letters: amn. Private to "mang": g. Private to "manus": su.

"mang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "manus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mang ← amng · magn · mangg · manng · mmang · mnag
  • manus ← amnus · mannus · mansu · manuss · mauns · mmanus · mnaus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mang" and "manus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/mæŋ/ versus /ˈmeɪnəs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mang" or "manus"?
"manus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,726 in our English list, against #43,250 for "mang". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mang" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,592 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mang" and "manus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mang vs Moog". 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 #28,592 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