mastersvsmysteryWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,356
“masters” frequency rank
#40,386
“mystery” frequency rank
50742
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature masters mystery
Definition Pluriel de master. Mystère.

Where the eye mixes masters and mystery

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. masters (CVCCVCC) and mystery (CVCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
masters
7 ch
mystery

Visual trap between masters and mystery

A purely visual mix-up. masters (\mas.tɛʁ\) and mystery (\ˈmɪs.tə.ri\) 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 50742, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

masters is recorded at frequency rank #10,356, classified as anoun, pronounced \mas.tɛʁ\. mystery is at rank #40,386, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmɪs.tə.ri\.

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 50742, this pair ranks #160,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of masters vs mystery

Shared letters: emrst. Private to "masters": a. Private to "mystery": y.

"masters" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "mystery" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • masters ← amsters · masetrs · massters · masterrs · masterss · mastesr · mastres · mastters
  • mystery ← mmystery · msytery · mysetry · mysstery · mysterry · mysteryy · mysteyr · mystrey

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "masters" for "mystery" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mas.tɛʁ\ versus \ˈmɪs.tə.ri\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "masters" vs "mystery" - which ranks higher?
"masters" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,356 in our French list, against #40,386 for "mystery". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "masters" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mystery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #160,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "masters" and "mystery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mister vs mystery". 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 #160,339 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