mouse
/maʊs/
"mouse" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mouse” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #4,255. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #4,255
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A rodent, typically having a small body, dark fur, and a long tail.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mouse · mouse · English
mouse · rank #4,255 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #4,255
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH Minnesota
Nearest frequency peer: Minnesota (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “mouse”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- Massachuset…
Massachusetts
95,749 corpus weight
- midnight
midnight
95,748 corpus weight
- Minnesota
Minnesota
95,747 corpus weight
- mouse
mouse
95,746 corpus weight
- Oscar
Oscar
95,745 corpus weight
- packed
packed
95,744 corpus weight
What this shows “mouse” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | mouse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /maʊs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #4,255 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “mouse”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around mouse (IPA /maʊs/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,255 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 12 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for mouse, with forms such as "mmouse", "mosue", and "moues". 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, "must", "move", "mute", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mous, from Old English mūs, from Proto-West Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *múHs. Cognates Germanic cognates include Old Frisian mūs, Old Saxon mūs (German Low German Muus), Dutch muis, Old High German … The correct English form is mouse, spelled M-O-U-S-E.
Definition
- 1A rodent, typically having a small body, dark fur, and a long tail.
- 2Any small rodent of the genus Mus.
- 3A quiet or shy person.
- 4An input device that is moved over a pad or other flat surface to produce a corresponding movement of a pointer on a graphical display.
- 5A pointer.
- 6A facial hematoma or black eye.
- 7A turn or lashing of spun yarn or small stuff, or a metallic clasp or fastening, uniting the point and shank of a hook to prevent its unhooking or straightening out.
- 8A familiar term of endearment.
- 9A match used in firing guns or blasting.
- 10A small model of (a fragment of) Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with desirable properties (depending on the context).
- 11A small cushion for a woman's hair.
- 12Part of a hind leg of beef, next to the round.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mouse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.
A person smeared with the excrement of a mouse was rendered impotent, according to Pliny the Elder.
Etymology
From Middle English mous, from Old English mūs, from Proto-West Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *múHs. Cognates Germanic cognates include Old Frisian mūs, Old Saxon mūs (German Low German Muus), Dutch muis, Old High German mūs (German Maus), Old Norse mús (Swedish mus, Danish mus, Norwegian mus, Icelandic mús, Faroese mús). Indo-European cognates include Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs), Latin mūs, Spanish mur, Armenian մուկ (muk), Old Church Slavonic мꙑшь (myšĭ) (Russian мышь (myšʹ)), Albanian mi, Persian موش (muš), Northern Kurdish mişk, Sanskrit मूष् (mūṣ). The computing sense was coined by American engineer Bill English in 1965 and first used publicly in a publication titled "Computer-Aided Display Control", in reference to the similarity with the animal.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- mmouse
- mosue
- moues
- muose
- omuse
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mouse - 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 "mouse", 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 (5 here; floor ≥5).