magovsmanConfusable pair

Which to use

“mago” and “man” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,140
“mago” frequency rank
#2,571
“man” frequency rank
10711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mago man
Definition Persona que practica la magia. Variante obsoleta de mano.

Where the eye mixes mago and man

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mago
3 ch
man

Look-alike desk: mago vs man

A purely visual mix-up. mago ([ˈmaɣ̞o]) and man ([ˈmãn]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mago is recorded at frequency rank #8,140, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaɣ̞o]. man is at rank #2,571, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmãn].

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 10711, this pair ranks #297,644 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mago vs man

Shared letters: am. Private to "mago": go. Private to "man": n.

"mago" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "man" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magoamgo · maggo · maog · mgao · mmago

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mago" for "man" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaɣ̞o] versus [ˈmãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mago" vs "man" - which ranks higher?
"man" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,571 in our Spanish list, against #8,140 for "mago". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mago" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "man" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #297,644 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mago" and "man" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mago vs math". 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 #297,644 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list