marinvsmartenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: marin is a adjective, marten is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#27,839
“marin” frequency rank
#43,341
“marten” frequency rank
71180
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marin marten
Definition zum Meer gehörend der Marder

Letter map: marin vs marten

Shared letters muted; letters that set marin and marten apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. marin runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against marten's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
marin
6 ch
marten

Grammar separator: marin vs marten

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: marin is anadjective and martenanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71180, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marin is recorded at frequency rank #27,839, classified as anadj, pronounced [maˈʁiːn]. marten is at rank #43,341, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 71180, this pair ranks #424,251 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of marin vs marten

Shared letters: amnr. Private to "marin": i. Private to "marten": et.

"marin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "marten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marin ← mairn · marinn · marni · marrin · mmarin · mrain
  • marten ← amrten · maretn · marrten · martenn · martne · martten · matren · mmarten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "marin" and "marten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "marin" is an adjective and "marten" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "marin" or "marten"?
"marin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,839 in our German list, against #43,341 for "marten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "marin" vs "marten" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #424,251 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marin" and "marten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marten vs puzzles". 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 #424,251 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