Which to use
“muscles” and “muses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,321
- “muscles” frequency rank
- #31,145
- “muses” frequency rank
- 37466
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | muscles | muses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de muscle. | Pluriel de muse. |
Where the eye mixes muscles and muses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. muscles runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against muses's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses muscles with muses
A purely visual mix-up. muscles (\myskl\) and muses (\myz\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
muscles is recorded at frequency rank #6,321, classified as anoun, pronounced \myskl\. muses is at rank #31,145, tagged as anoun, pronounced \myz\.
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 37466, this pair ranks #262,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of muscles vs muses
Shared letters: emsu. Private to "muscles": cl. Private to "muses": -.
"muscles" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC · "muses" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "muscles" for "muses" ever safe?
Frequency check: "muscles" vs "muses" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "muscles" and "muses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "muscles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "muses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #262,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "muscles" and "muses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muer vs muses". 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 #262,320 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.