makevsmarkWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: make is a verb, mark is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“make” is a verb and “mark” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#87
“make” frequency rank
#949
“mark” frequency rank
1036
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature make mark
Definition To create. Boundary, land within a boundary.

Where the eye mixes make and mark

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
make
4 ch
mark

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: make is /meɪk/ while mark is /mɑːk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1036, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

make is recorded at frequency rank #87, classified as averb, pronounced /meɪk/. mark is at rank #949, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɑːk/.

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 1036, this pair ranks #528,244 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of make vs mark

Shared letters: akm. Private to "make": e. Private to "mark": r.

"make" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mark" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • makeamke · maek · makke · mkae · mmake
  • markamrk · makr · markk · marrk · mmark · mrak

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "make" and "mark" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "make" is a verb and "mark" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "make" or "mark"?
"make" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #87 in our English list, against #949 for "mark". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list