Which to use
“mutt” and “mutton” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,665
- “mutt” frequency rank
- #28,634
- “mutton” frequency rank
- 60299
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mutt | mutton |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A mongrel dog (or sometimes cat); an animal of mixed breed or uncertain origin. | The meat of sheep used as food; especially, that of adults. |
Where the eye mixes mutt and mutton
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mutt with mutton
A purely visual mix-up. mutt (/mʌt/) and mutton (/ˈmʌt(ə)n/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “mutt” sits inside “mutton”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mutt is recorded at frequency rank #31,665, classified as anoun, pronounced /mʌt/. mutton is at rank #28,634, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmʌt(ə)n/.
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 60299, this pair ranks #100,969 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mutt vs mutton
Shared letters: mtu. Private to "mutt": -. Private to "mutton": no.
"mutt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "mutton" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mutt" for "mutton" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mutt" vs "mutton" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "mutt" and "mutton" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mutt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mutton" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #100,969 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mutt" and "mutton" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muda vs mutt". 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 #100,969 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.