manovsmansWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#342
“mano” frequency rank
#43,698
“mans” frequency rank
44040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mano mans
Definition Extremidad prensil y articulada en el extremo distal del brazo de los antropoides. Forma del plural de mà.

Where the eye mixes mano and mans

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mano
4 ch
mans

Why the eye confuses mano with mans

A purely visual mix-up. mano ([ˈmano]) and mans ([ˈmans]) 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 a single letter - o in “mano” becomes s in “mans”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mano is recorded at frequency rank #342, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmano]. mans is at rank #43,698, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmans].

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 44040, this pair ranks #139,272 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mano vs mans

Shared letters: amn. Private to "mano": o. Private to "mans": s.

"mano" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manoamno · manno · maon · mmano · mnao
  • mansamns · manns · manss · masn · mmans · mnas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mano" and "mans" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmano] versus [ˈmans]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "mano" or "mans" show up more?
"mano" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #342 in our Spanish list, against #43,698 for "mans". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "mano" and "mans" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mano" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #139,272 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mano" and "mans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "makes vs mans". 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 #139,272 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