multivsmustyWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: multi is a noun, musty is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“multi” is a noun and “musty” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,801
“multi” frequency rank
#35,838
“musty” frequency rank
38639
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature multi musty
Definition Clipping of multistan. Affected by dampness or mould; damp, mildewed, mouldy.

Letter map: multi vs musty

Shared letters muted; letters that set multi and musty apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
multi
5 ch
musty

Role in the sentence - multi and musty

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: multi is anoun and mustyanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

multi is recorded at frequency rank #2,801, classified as anoun. musty is at rank #35,838, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmʌsti/.

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 38639, this pair ranks #284,126 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of multi vs musty

Shared letters: mtu. Private to "multi": il. Private to "musty": sy.

"multi" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "musty" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • multimluti · mmulti · mulit · mullti · multti · mutli · umlti
  • mustymmusty · msuty · mussty · mustty · mustyy · musyt · mutsy · umsty

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "multi" and "musty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "multi" is a noun and "musty" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "multi" or "musty" show up more?
"multi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,801 in our English list, against #35,838 for "musty". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "multi" and "musty".

  • Full dictionary entry for "multi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "musty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #284,126 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "multi" and "musty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Murthy vs musty". 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 #284,126 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