modsvsMrsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,631
“mods” frequency rank
#1,372
“Mrs” frequency rank
20003
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mods Mrs
Definition plural of mod 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 mods and Mrs

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

4 ch
mods
3 ch
Mrs

Why the eye confuses mods with Mrs

A purely visual mix-up. mods (/mɒdz/) 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 20003, 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/. 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 20003, this pair ranks #434,209 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mods vs Mrs

Shared letters: ms. Private to "mods": do. Private to "Mrs": r.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • modsmdos · mmods · modds · modss · mosd · omds

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mods" for "Mrs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/mɒdz/ versus /ˈmɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "mods" or "Mrs" show up more?
"Mrs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,372 in our English list, against #18,631 for "mods". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mods" 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 #434,209 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mods" and "Mrs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mods vs Moog". 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 #434,209 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