mindsvsmonksConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,315
“minds” frequency rank
#10,889
“monks” frequency rank
14204
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature minds monks
Definition plural of mind plural of monk

Where the eye mixes minds and monks

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

5 ch
minds
5 ch
monks

Look-alike desk: minds vs monks

A purely visual mix-up. minds (/maɪndz/) and monks (/mʌŋks/) 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 14204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

minds is recorded at frequency rank #3,315, classified as anoun, pronounced /maɪndz/. monks is at rank #10,889, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mʌŋks/.

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 14204, this pair ranks #471,460 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of minds vs monks

Shared letters: mns. Private to "minds": di. Private to "monks": ko.

"minds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "monks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mindsimnds · midns · mindds · mindss · minnds · minsd · mminds · mnids
  • monksmmonks · mnoks · mokns · monkks · monkss · monnks · monsk · omnks

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "minds" for "monks" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/maɪndz/ versus /mʌŋks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "minds" vs "monks" - which ranks higher?
"minds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,315 in our English list, against #10,889 for "monks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "minds" and "monks" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "minds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "monks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #471,460 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "minds" and "monks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "monks vs mook". 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 #471,460 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