Which to use
“miracle” and “mirage” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,813
- “miracle” frequency rank
- #19,906
- “mirage” frequency rank
- 25719
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | miracle | mirage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin. | An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, often giving the illusion of a body of water. |
Where the eye mixes miracle and mirage
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between miracle and mirage
A purely visual mix-up. miracle (/ˈmɪɹ.ə.kəl/) and mirage (/mɪˈɹɑːʒ/) 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 25719, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
miracle is recorded at frequency rank #5,813, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɪɹ.ə.kəl/. mirage is at rank #19,906, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɪˈɹɑːʒ/.
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 25719, this pair ranks #392,172 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of miracle vs mirage
Shared letters: aeimr. Private to "miracle": cl. Private to "mirage": g.
"miracle" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "mirage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "miracle" and "mirage" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "miracle" or "mirage"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "miracle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mirage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #392,172 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "miracle" and "mirage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mirage vs Miyagi". 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 #392,172 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.