msvsmusWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ms is a symbol, mus is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ms” is a symbol and “mus” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,112
“ms” frequency rank
#26,805
“mus” frequency rank
32917
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ms mus
Definition Symbole de la milliseconde, unité de mesure de temps du Système international (SI), valant 10⁻³ seconde. Jeu de cartes populaire d'origine basque.

Letter map: ms vs mus

Shared letters muted; letters that set ms and mus apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
ms
3 ch
mus

Part-of-speech tell for ms / mus

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ms is asymbol and musanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32917, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ms is recorded at frequency rank #6,112, classified as asymbol. mus is at rank #26,805, tagged as anoun, pronounced \muʃ\.

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 32917, this pair ranks #294,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ms vs mus

Shared letters: ms. Private to "ms": -. Private to "mus": u.

"ms" · 2 letters · shape CC  ·  "mus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ms" for "mus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ms" is a symbol and "mus" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ms" or "mus"?
"ms" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,112 in our French list, against #26,805 for "mus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "ms" vs "mus" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ms" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #294,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ms" and "mus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mus vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #294,114 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