molestervsmonsterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,770
“molester” frequency rank
#3,074
“monster” frequency rank
44844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature molester monster
Definition One who molests. A terrifying and dangerous creature, especially one of an imaginary or mythical kind.

Where the eye mixes molester and monster

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
molester
7 ch
monster

Why the eye confuses molester with monster

A purely visual mix-up. molester (/məˈlɛstɚ/) and monster (/ˈmɒnstə(ɹ)/) 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 44844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

molester is recorded at frequency rank #41,770, classified as anoun, pronounced /məˈlɛstɚ/. monster is at rank #3,074, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɒnstə(ɹ)/.

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 44844, this pair ranks #226,802 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of molester vs monster

Shared letters: emorst. Private to "molester": l. Private to "monster": n.

"molester" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "monster" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • molestermloester · mmolester · moelster · molesetr · molesster · molesterr · molestre · molestter
  • monstermmonster · mnoster · monnster · monsetr · monsster · monsterr · monstre · monstter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "molester" for "monster" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/məˈlɛstɚ/ versus /ˈmɒnstə(ɹ)/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "molester" or "monster"?
"monster" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,074 in our English list, against #41,770 for "molester". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "molester" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "monster" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #226,802 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "molester" and "monster" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "molest vs molester". 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 #226,802 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