Mafia
/ˈmɑfi.ə/
"mafia" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Mafia” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #9,208. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #9,208
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The Mob: any particular mafia, mentioned uniquely within the discussion's established or implicit context, usually and especially the Sicilian-Italian–Italian-American one (especially in American E...
Corpus desk
Index EN-mafia · Mafia · English
Mafia · rank #9,208 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #9,208
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH LLC
Nearest frequency peer: LLC (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “Mafia”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- livestock
livestock
90,796 corpus weight
- Liz
Liz
90,795 corpus weight
- LLC
LLC
90,794 corpus weight
- Mafia
Mafia
90,793 corpus weight
- manners
manners
90,792 corpus weight
- merry
merry
90,791 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “Mafia” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Mafia |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɑfi.ə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #9,208 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Mafia” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around Mafia (IPA /ˈmɑfi.ə/), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #9,208 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for Mafia, with forms such as "amfia", "mafai", and "maffia". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MIA", "mai", "main", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian mafia, of uncertain origin. In the first instance, it is not clear whether the lemma in question is a Sicilian exonym or endonym, since written and oral sources on this term are scarce, the etymology remains uncertain and it's worthy o… The correct English form is Mafia, spelled M-A-F-I-A.
Definition
- 1The Mob: any particular mafia, mentioned uniquely within the discussion's established or implicit context, usually and especially the Sicilian-Italian–Italian-American one (especially in American English) but occasionally others (e.g., the Russian one, the Japanese one).
- 2The Mob: any particular mafia, mentioned uniquely within the discussion's established or implicit context, usually and especially the Sicilian-Italian–Italian-American one (especially in American English) but occasionally others (e.g., the Russian one, the Japanese one).
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Mafia appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Somehow he managed to upset the Russian Mafia.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian mafia, of uncertain origin. In the first instance, it is not clear whether the lemma in question is a Sicilian exonym or endonym, since written and oral sources on this term are scarce, the etymology remains uncertain and it's worthy of further investigation. It is possibly a regional term of the then recently established Kingdom of Italy; thus the meaning "spirit of hostility to the law" could be just derivative. The hypotheses put forward have been varied, but not very convincing from a reconstructive point of view. See Sicilian mafia for more. See, also, the Wikipedia article for more discussion of the origin of the word. Doublet of mafiya.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- amfia
- mafai
- maffia
- maifa
- mfaia
- mmafia
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Mafia - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "Mafia"?
What does "Mafia" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "Mafia"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Mafia", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "Mafia". Here's where to go from here.
- "Mafia" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "MIA". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #9,208 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "M" letter cohort. M–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.