Which to use
“masque” and “mosque” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,049
- “masque” frequency rank
- #8,458
- “mosque” frequency rank
- 54507
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | masque | mosque |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A dramatic performance, often performed at court as a royal entertainment, consisting of dancing, dialogue, pantomime and song. | A place of worship for Muslims, often having at least one minaret; a masjid. |
Where the eye mixes masque and mosque
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between masque and mosque
A purely visual mix-up. masque (/mæsk/) and mosque (/mɑsk/) 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 a single letter - a in “masque” becomes o in “mosque”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
masque is recorded at frequency rank #46,049, classified as anoun, pronounced /mæsk/. mosque is at rank #8,458, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɑsk/.
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 54507, this pair ranks #140,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of masque vs mosque
Shared letters: emqsu. Private to "masque": a. Private to "mosque": o.
"masque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "mosque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "masque" for "mosque" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "masque" or "mosque" show up more?
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 "masque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mosque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #140,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "masque" and "mosque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "masque vs Massie". 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 #140,578 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.