mansionvsminionWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,933
“mansion” frequency rank
#27,217
“minion” frequency rank
34150
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mansion minion
Definition A large luxurious house or building, usually built for the wealthy. A loyal servant of another, usually a more powerful being.

Where the eye mixes mansion and minion

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mansion runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against minion's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
mansion
6 ch
minion

Look-alike desk: mansion vs minion

A purely visual mix-up. mansion (/ˈmæn.ʃən/) and minion (/ˈmɪnjən/) 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 34150, 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/. minion is at rank #27,217, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɪnjən/.

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 34150, this pair ranks #323,220 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mansion vs minion

Shared letters: imno. Private to "mansion": as. Private to "minion": -.

"mansion" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "minion" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mansion ← amnsion · manison · mannsion · mansino · mansionn · mansoin · manssion · mantion
  • minion ← imnion · miinon · minino · minionn · minnion · minoin · mminion · mniion

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mansion" for "minion" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmæn.ʃən/ versus /ˈmɪnjən/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "mansion" or "minion" show up more?
"mansion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,933 in our English list, against #27,217 for "minion". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "minion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #323,220 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mansion" and "minion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "minion vs Minot". 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 #323,220 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