Which to use
“mages” and “magot” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,382
- “mages” frequency rank
- #42,999
- “magot” frequency rank
- 64381
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mages | magot |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mage. | Gros singe sans queue, du genre des macaques. |
Where the eye mixes mages and magot
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mages and magot follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses mages with magot
A purely visual mix-up. mages (\maʒ\) and magot (\ma.ɡo\) 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 64381, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mages is recorded at frequency rank #21,382, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʒ\. magot is at rank #42,999, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ɡo\.
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 64381, this pair ranks #77,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mages vs magot
Shared letters: agm. Private to "mages": es. Private to "magot": ot.
"mages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "magot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mages" and "magot" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "mages" or "magot"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "magot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #77,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mages" and "magot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magot vs magret". 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 #77,322 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.