Which to use
“mansion” and “mason” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,933
- “mansion” frequency rank
- #5,709
- “mason” frequency rank
- 12642
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mansion | mason |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A large luxurious house or building, usually built for the wealthy. | A bricklayer, one whose occupation is to build with stone or brick. |
Where the eye mixes mansion and mason
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mansion runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against mason's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses mansion with mason
A purely visual mix-up. mansion (/ˈmæn.ʃən/) 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 12642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mansion is recorded at frequency rank #6,933, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmæn.ʃən/. 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 12642, this pair ranks #480,370 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mansion vs mason
Shared letters: amnos. Private to "mansion": i. Private to "mason": -.
"mansion" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "mason" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mansion" for "mason" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "mansion" or "mason" 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 "mansion" 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 #480,370 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mansion" 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 #480,370 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.