mojovsmottoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,142
“mojo” frequency rank
#10,890
“motto” frequency rank
30032
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mojo motto
Definition A magic spell or hex. A personal slogan.

Where the eye mixes mojo and motto

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

4 ch
mojo
5 ch
motto

Visual trap between mojo and motto

A purely visual mix-up. mojo (/ˈmoʊd͡ʒoʊ/) and motto (/ˈmɑ.toʊ/) 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 30032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mojo is recorded at frequency rank #19,142, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmoʊd͡ʒoʊ/. motto is at rank #10,890, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɑ.toʊ/.

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 30032, this pair ranks #357,918 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mojo vs motto

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mojo": j. Private to "motto": t.

"mojo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "motto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mojomjoo · mmojo · mojjo · mooj · omjo
  • mottommotto · motot · mtoto · omtto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mojo" for "motto" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmoʊd͡ʒoʊ/ versus /ˈmɑ.toʊ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mojo" vs "motto" - which ranks higher?
"motto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,890 in our English list, against #19,142 for "mojo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mojo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "motto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,918 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mojo" and "motto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mojo 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 #357,918 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