manusvsmodusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,726
“manus” frequency rank
#31,659
“modus” frequency rank
65385
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manus modus
Definition A hand, as the part of the fore limb below the forearm in a human, or the corresponding part in other vertebrates. The arrangement of, or mode of expressing, the terms of a contract or conveyance.

Where the eye mixes manus and modus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
manus
5 ch
modus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. manus (/ˈmeɪnəs/) and modus (/ˈməʊdəs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manus is recorded at frequency rank #33,726, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪnəs/. modus is at rank #31,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈməʊdəs/.

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 65385, this pair ranks #73,013 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of manus vs modus

Shared letters: msu. Private to "manus": an. Private to "modus": do.

"manus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "modus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manusamnus · mannus · mansu · manuss · mauns · mmanus · mnaus
  • modusmdous · mmodus · moddus · modsu · moduss · mouds · omdus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manus" and "modus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmeɪnəs/ versus /ˈməʊdəs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manus" or "modus"?
"modus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,659 in our English list, against #33,726 for "manus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "manus" and "modus". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "modus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,013 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manus" and "modus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magus vs manus". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list