masa
"masa" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“masa” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #43,253 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #43,253
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A strong form of paper, smooth on one side and lightly textured on the other, used for drawing and painting.
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 | masa |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #43,253 |
| Misspellings tracked | 3 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “masa” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for masa is 4 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #43,253 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A strong form of paper, smooth on one side and lightly textured on the other, used for drawing and painting.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for masa, with forms such as "amsa", "mmasa", and "msaa". 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, "MS", "may", "Mrs", 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 Japanese 柾 (masa) or 政 (masa), an abbreviation of 柾紙 (masagami) or 政紙 (masagami). The correct English form is masa, spelled M-A-S-A.
Definition
- 1A strong form of paper, smooth on one side and lightly textured on the other, used for drawing and painting.
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 柾 (masa) or 政 (masa), an abbreviation of 柾紙 (masagami) or 政紙 (masagami).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amsa,mmasa,msaa
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of masa - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Using “masa”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-S-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “MS” - see the side-by-side comparison. masa vs MS
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.