mana
/ˈmɑː.nə/
"mana" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mana” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #19,892) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #19,892
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Power, prestige; specifically, a form of supernatural energy in Polynesian religion that inheres in things or people.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mana · mana · English
mana · rank #19,892 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #19,892
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH malfunction
Nearest frequency peer: malfunction (-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 neighbours of confusable “mana”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- Louisa
Louisa
80,112 corpus weight
- mahogany
mahogany
80,111 corpus weight
- malfunction
malfunction
80,110 corpus weight
- mana
mana
80,109 corpus weight
- Manson
Manson
80,108 corpus weight
- Marin
Marin
80,107 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “mana” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | mana |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɑː.nə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #19,892 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “mana”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for mana is neighbouring look-alikes ("MN", "may", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈmɑː.nə/. Frequency #19,892 among 4,057 “M” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for mana, with forms such as "amna", "maan", and "mmana". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MN", "may", "men", 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 Māori mana, ultimately from Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana. The use of "mana" for "magical energy" in role-playing games originated from Larry Niven, when he wrote the short story, "Not Long Before the End", in 1969. It was l… The correct English form is mana, spelled M-A-N-A.
Definition
- 1Power, prestige; specifically, a form of supernatural energy in Polynesian religion that inheres in things or people.
- 2Magical energy.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mana appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They further required that a certain number of the old Chiefs should be liberally pensioned by the Government, and placed upon a footing of equality with European gentlemen of independent means, in consideration of their resigning their "mana" as Chiefs in favor of the new system […]
The human tribe partakes of the mana or life-force of the animal, and is strengthened […]
Etymology
Borrowed from Māori mana, ultimately from Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana. The use of "mana" for "magical energy" in role-playing games originated from Larry Niven, when he wrote the short story, "Not Long Before the End", in 1969. It was later popularised by his The Magic Goes Away setting.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- amna
- maan
- mmana
- mnaa
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mana - 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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mana", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).