modernvsMowersConfusable pair

Quick tell: modern is a adjective, Mowers is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“modern” is an adjective and “Mowers” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#908
“modern” frequency rank
#47,210
“Mowers” frequency rank
48118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature modern Mowers
Definition Pertaining to a current or recent time and style; not ancient. A surname.

Letter map: modern vs Mowers

Shared letters muted; letters that set modern and Mowers apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. modern and Mowers follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
modern
6 ch
Mowers

Role in the sentence - modern and Mowers

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: modern is anadjective and Mowersaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

modern is recorded at frequency rank #908, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɒd(ə)n/. Mowers is at rank #47,210, tagged as aname.

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 48118, this pair ranks #196,111 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of modern vs Mowers

Shared letters: emor. Private to "modern": dn. Private to "Mowers": sw.

"modern" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "Mowers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • modern ← mdoern · mmodern · moddern · modenr · modernn · moderrn · modren · moedrn
  • Mowers ← mmowers · moewrs · mowerrs · mowerss · mowesr · mowres · mowwers · mwoers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "modern" for "Mowers" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "modern" is an adjective and "Mowers" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "modern" vs "Mowers" - which ranks higher?
"modern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #908 in our English list, against #47,210 for "Mowers". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "modern" and "Mowers".

  • Full dictionary entry for "modern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mowers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,111 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "modern" and "Mowers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "MERS vs Mowers". 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 #196,111 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