monkeyvsmonteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#6,380
“monkey” frequency rank
#11,423
“monte” frequency rank
17803
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature monkey monte
Definition A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails, and cheek pouches. A game in which three or four cards are dealt face-up and players bet on which of them will first be matched in suit by others dealt.

Where the eye mixes monkey and monte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
monkey
5 ch
monte

Look-alike desk: monkey vs monte

A purely visual mix-up. monkey (/ˈmʌŋki/) and monte (/ˈmɒnti/) 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 17803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

monkey is recorded at frequency rank #6,380, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmʌŋki/. monte is at rank #11,423, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɒnti/.

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 17803, this pair ranks #449,018 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of monkey vs monte

Shared letters: emno. Private to "monkey": ky. Private to "monte": t.

"monkey" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "monte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • monkeymmonkey · mnokey · mokney · moneky · monkeyy · monkkey · monkye · monnkey
  • montemmonte · mnote · monnte · montte · motne · omnte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "monkey" for "monte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmʌŋki/ versus /ˈmɒnti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "monkey" or "monte" show up more?
"monkey" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,380 in our English list, against #11,423 for "monte". 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 "monkey" and "monte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "monkey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "monte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #449,018 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "monkey" and "monte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "monger vs monte". 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 #449,018 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