Which to use
“mare” and “Mrs” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,015
- “mare” frequency rank
- #1,372
- “Mrs” frequency rank
- 14387
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mare | Mrs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An adult female horse. | Abbreviation of Missus or Mistress; used before an adult woman's name or surname, used for any high-status woman without regard to marital status until the 1800s, after which it began to be reserved for married, divorced and widowed women and used with their married surnames. |
Where the eye mixes mare and Mrs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mare and Mrs
A purely visual mix-up. mare (/mɛə/) and Mrs (/ˈmɪsɪz/) 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 14387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mare is recorded at frequency rank #13,015, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɛə/. Mrs is at rank #1,372, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɪsɪz/.
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 14387, this pair ranks #470,340 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mare vs Mrs
Shared letters: mr. Private to "mare": ae. Private to "Mrs": s.
"mare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "Mrs" · 3 letters · shape CCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mare ← amre · maer · marre · mmare · mrae
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mare" and "Mrs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "mare" or "Mrs"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Mrs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #470,340 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mare" and "Mrs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mare vs Marne". 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 #470,340 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.