Which to use
“marge” and “marten” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,155
- “marge” frequency rank
- #43,775
- “marten” frequency rank
- 69930
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marge | marten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Margin; edge; brink or verge. | Any carnivorous mammal of the genus Martes. |
Where the eye mixes marge and marten
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. marge runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against marten's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: marge vs marten
A purely visual mix-up. marge (/mɑɹd͡ʒ/) and marten (/ˈmɑː.tɪn/) 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 69930, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marge is recorded at frequency rank #26,155, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɑɹd͡ʒ/. marten is at rank #43,775, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɑː.tɪn/.
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 69930, this pair ranks #52,577 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of marge vs marten
Shared letters: aemr. Private to "marge": g. Private to "marten": nt.
"marge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "marten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "marge" and "marten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "marge" or "marten"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "marge" 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 #52,577 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marge" and "marten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Marne vs marten". 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 #52,577 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.