mistvsMrsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,744
“mist” frequency rank
#1,372
“Mrs” frequency rank
13116
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mist Mrs
Definition Water or other liquid finely suspended in air. (Compare fog, haze.) 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 mist and Mrs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mist
3 ch
Mrs

Visual trap between mist and Mrs

A purely visual mix-up. mist (/mɪst/) 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 13116, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mist is recorded at frequency rank #11,744, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɪst/. 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 13116, this pair ranks #477,676 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mist vs Mrs

Shared letters: ms. Private to "mist": it. Private to "Mrs": r.

"mist" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Mrs" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mistimst · misst · mistt · mits · mmist · msit

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mist" and "Mrs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/mɪst/ versus /ˈmɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mist" or "Mrs"?
"Mrs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,372 in our English list, against #11,744 for "mist". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mist" 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 #477,676 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mist" and "Mrs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "miser vs mist". 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 #477,676 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