magotvsmasonTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,999
“magot” frequency rank
#14,730
“mason” frequency rank
57729
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magot mason
Definition Gros singe sans queue, du genre des macaques. Maçon.

Where the eye mixes magot and mason

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

5 ch
magot
5 ch
mason

Why the eye confuses magot with mason

A purely visual mix-up. magot (\ma.ɡo\) and mason (\ˈmeɪ.sən\) 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 57729, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

magot is recorded at frequency rank #42,999, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ɡo\. mason is at rank #14,730, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmeɪ.sən\.

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 57729, this pair ranks #113,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of magot vs mason

Shared letters: amo. Private to "magot": gt. Private to "mason": ns.

"magot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mason" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magotamgot · maggot · magott · magto · maogt · mgaot · mmagot
  • masonamson · maosn · masno · masonn · mmason · msaon

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "magot" and "mason" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ma.ɡo\ versus \ˈmeɪ.sən\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "magot" vs "mason" - which ranks higher?
"mason" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,730 in our French list, against #42,999 for "magot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "magot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mason" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #113,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "magot" and "mason" 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 #113,309 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