MaravsmareWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Mara” and “mare” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,981
“Mara” frequency rank
#24,825
“mare” frequency rank
43806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mara mare
Definition Nagetier, Art der Meerschweinchen, die in Südamerika beheimatet ist Stute

Where the eye mixes Mara and mare

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Mara and mare follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Mara
4 ch
mare

Visual trap between Mara and mare

A purely visual mix-up. Mara ([ˈmaːʁa]) and mare ([mɛə]) 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 a single letter - a in “Mara” becomes e in “mare”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mara is recorded at frequency rank #18,981, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaːʁa]. mare is at rank #24,825, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɛə].

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 43806, this pair ranks #1,406,364 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mara vs mare

Shared letters: amr. Private to "Mara": -. Private to "mare": e.

"Mara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maraamra · maar · marra · mmara · mraa
  • maremaer · marre · mmare · mrae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mara" and "mare" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaːʁa] versus [mɛə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Mara" or "mare"?
"Mara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,981 in our German list, against #24,825 for "mare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mare" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,406,364 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mara" and "mare" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mare vs mora". 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 #1,406,364 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list