MardervsMarkerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,273
“Marder” frequency rank
#29,236
“Marker” frequency rank
67509
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Marder Marker
Definition eine Familie (Mustelidae) hundeartiger Raubtiere durchsichtig breit schreibender farbiger Stift, mit dem man Text hervorhebt

Where the eye mixes Marder and Marker

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Marder and Marker follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Marder
6 ch
Marker

Look-alike desk: Marder vs Marker

A purely visual mix-up. Marder ([ˈmaʁdɐ]) and Marker ([ˈmaʁkɐ]) 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 - d in “Marder” becomes k in “Marker”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Marder is recorded at frequency rank #38,273, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaʁdɐ]. Marker is at rank #29,236, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaʁkɐ].

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 67509, this pair ranks #537,919 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Marder vs Marker

Shared letters: aemr. Private to "Marder": d. Private to "Marker": k.

"Marder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Marker" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Marder ← amrder · madrer · mardder · marderr · mardre · maredr · marrder · mmarder
  • Marker ← amrker · makrer · marekr · markerr · markker · markre · marrker · mmarker

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Marder" for "Marker" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaʁdɐ] versus [ˈmaʁkɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Marder" vs "Marker" - which ranks higher?
"Marker" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,236 in our German list, against #38,273 for "Marder". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Marder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Marker" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #537,919 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Marder" and "Marker" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Marder vs maroden". 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 #537,919 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