magvsmudTell them apart

Which to use

“mag” and “mud” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#14,504
“mag” frequency rank
#49,806
“mud” frequency rank
64310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mag mud
Definition Magazine. Boue.

Where the eye mixes mag and mud

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
mag
3 ch
mud

Visual trap between mag and mud

A purely visual mix-up. mag (\maɡ\) and mud (\ˈmʌd\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mag is recorded at frequency rank #14,504, classified as anoun, pronounced \maɡ\. mud is at rank #49,806, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmʌd\.

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 64310, this pair ranks #77,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mag vs mud

Shared letters: m. Private to "mag": ag. Private to "mud": du.

"mag" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mud" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mag" and "mud" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\maɡ\ versus \ˈmʌd\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mag" vs "mud" - which ranks higher?
"mag" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,504 in our French list, against #49,806 for "mud". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mag" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #77,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mag" and "mud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mud vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #77,675 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list