minusvsmunisConfusable pair

Quick tell: minus is a noun, munis is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“minus” is a noun and “munis” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,073
“minus” frequency rank
#17,198
“munis” frequency rank
49271
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature minus munis
Definition Individu aux capacités intellectuelles limitées. Masculin pluriel de muni.

Where the eye mixes minus and munis

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

5 ch
minus
5 ch
munis

Look-alike desk: minus vs munis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: minus is \mi.nys\ while munis is \my.ni\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49271, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

minus is recorded at frequency rank #32,073, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.nys\. munis is at rank #17,198, tagged as anadj, pronounced \my.ni\.

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 49271, this pair ranks #172,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of minus vs munis

Shared letters: imnsu. Private to "minus": -. Private to "munis": -.

"minus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "munis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • minusimnus · minnus · minsu · minuss · miuns · mminus · mnius
  • munismmunis · mnuis · muins · muniss · munnis · munsi · umnis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "minus" and "munis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "minus" is a noun and "munis" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "minus" or "munis" show up more?
"munis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,198 in our French list, against #32,073 for "minus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "minus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "munis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #172,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "minus" and "munis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "minois vs minus". 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 #172,021 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