musesvsmutedConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#27,576
“muses” frequency rank
#16,759
“muted” frequency rank
44335
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature muses muted
Definition plural of muse Not expressed strongly or openly; subdued and understated

Letter map: muses vs muted

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

5 ch
muses
5 ch
muted

Part-of-speech tell for muses / muted

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: muses is anoun and mutedanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44335, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

muses is recorded at frequency rank #27,576, classified as anoun, pronounced /mjuːzɪz/. muted is at rank #16,759, tagged as anadj.

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 44335, this pair ranks #231,597 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of muses vs muted

Shared letters: emu. Private to "muses": s. Private to "muted": dt.

"muses" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "muted" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • musesmmuses · msues · muess · musess · musses · umses
  • mutedmmuted · mtued · muetd · mutde · mutedd · mutted · umted

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "muses" for "muted" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "muses" is a noun and "muted" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "muses" or "muted"?
"muted" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,759 in our English list, against #27,576 for "muses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "muses" and "muted". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "muses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #231,597 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "muses" and "muted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "miser vs muses". 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 #231,597 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