manevsmasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,441
“mane” frequency rank
#9,694
“mas” frequency rank
57135
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mane mas
Definition Crinière. Ferme dans le midi de la France.

Where the eye mixes mane and mas

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

4 ch
mane
3 ch
mas

Look-alike desk: mane vs mas

A purely visual mix-up. mane (\meɪn\) and mas (\mas\) 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 57135, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mane is recorded at frequency rank #47,441, classified as anoun, pronounced \meɪn\. mas is at rank #9,694, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mas\.

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 57135, this pair ranks #116,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mane vs mas

Shared letters: am. Private to "mane": en. Private to "mas": s.

"mane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manemmane · mnae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mane" for "mas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\meɪn\ versus \mas\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mane" or "mas"?
"mas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,694 in our French list, against #47,441 for "mane". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #116,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mane" and "mas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mane". 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 #116,846 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