maravsMRTWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,072
“mara” frequency rank
#40,351
“MRT” frequency rank
56423
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mara MRT
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 magnetic resonance tomography.

Where the eye mixes mara and MRT

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mara
3 ch
MRT

Visual trap between mara and MRT

A purely visual mix-up. mara (/ˈmɑːɹə/) and MRT (/ɛm ɑː(ɹ)tiː/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56423, 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/. MRT is at rank #40,351, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɛm ɑː(ɹ)tiː/.

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 56423, this pair ranks #126,423 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mara vs MRT

Shared letters: mr. Private to "mara": a. Private to "MRT": t.

"mara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "MRT" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maraamra · maar · marra · mmara · mraa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mara" for "MRT" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɑːɹə/ versus /ɛm ɑː(ɹ)tiː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mara" vs "MRT" - which ranks higher?
"mara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,072 in our English list, against #40,351 for "MRT". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "MRT" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #126,423 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mara" and "MRT" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "MMP vs MRT". 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 #126,423 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