mastervsmobsterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,250
“master” frequency rank
#35,834
“mobster” frequency rank
37084
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature master mobster
Definition Someone who has control over something or someone. A member of a mob or Mafia.

Where the eye mixes master and mobster

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
master
7 ch
mobster

Visual trap between master and mobster

A purely visual mix-up. master (/ˈmɑːs.tə/) and mobster (/ˈmɒb.stə/) 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 37084, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

master is recorded at frequency rank #1,250, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɑːs.tə/. mobster is at rank #35,834, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɒb.stə/.

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 37084, this pair ranks #297,564 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of master vs mobster

Shared letters: emrst. Private to "master": a. Private to "mobster": bo.

"master" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mobster" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • masteramster · masetr · masster · masterr · mastre · mastter · matser · mmaster
  • mobstermboster · mmobster · mobbster · mobsetr · mobsster · mobsterr · mobstre · mobstter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "master" and "mobster" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɑːs.tə/ versus /ˈmɒb.stə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "master" vs "mobster" - which ranks higher?
"master" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,250 in our English list, against #35,834 for "mobster". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "master" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mobster" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #297,564 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "master" and "mobster" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meister vs mobster". 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 #297,564 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