maravsMDAWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“mara” and “MDA” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,072
“mara” frequency rank
#38,493
“MDA” frequency rank
54565
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mara MDA
Definition A nightmare; a spectre or wraith-like creature in Germanic and particularly Scandinavian folklore; a female demon who torments people in sleep by crouching on their chests or stomachs, or by causing terrifying visions. Initialism of mobile data assistant.

Letter map: mara vs MDA

Shared letters muted; letters that set mara and MDA apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mara
3 ch
MDA

Corpus notes: mara and MDA

mara and MDA are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54565, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mara is recorded at frequency rank #16,072, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɑːɹə/. MDA is at rank #38,493, tagged as anoun.

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 54565, this pair ranks #140,110 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mara vs MDA

Shared letters: am. Private to "mara": r. Private to "MDA": d.

"mara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "MDA" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maraamra · maar · marra · mmara · mraa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mara" for "MDA" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "mara" vs "MDA" - which ranks higher?
"mara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,072 in our English list, against #38,493 for "MDA". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mara" and "MDA".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "MDA" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #140,110 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mara" and "MDA" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "MDA vs MPAA". 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 #140,110 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list