modsvsmoshWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mods is a noun, mosh is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mods” is a noun and “mosh” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,631
“mods” frequency rank
#43,796
“mosh” frequency rank
62427
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mods mosh
Definition plural of mod To dance by intentionally jumping into and colliding with other, similarly behaving dancers, and performing other wild, aggressive, or spastic movements.

Where the eye mixes mods and mosh

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

4 ch
mods
4 ch
mosh

Look-alike desk: mods vs mosh

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mods is /mɒdz/ while mosh is /mɒʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62427, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mods is recorded at frequency rank #18,631, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɒdz/. mosh is at rank #43,796, tagged as averb, pronounced /mɒʃ/.

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 62427, this pair ranks #88,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mods vs mosh

Shared letters: mos. Private to "mods": d. Private to "mosh": h.

"mods" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mosh" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • modsmdos · mmods · modds · modss · mosd · omds
  • moshmmosh · mohs · moshh · mossh · msoh · omsh

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mods" for "mosh" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mods" is a noun and "mosh" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mods" or "mosh"?
"mods" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,631 in our English list, against #43,796 for "mosh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "mods" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mosh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #88,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mods" and "mosh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Moog vs mosh". 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 #88,578 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