Which to use
“margin” and “merlin” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,537
- “margin” frequency rank
- #16,749
- “merlin” frequency rank
- 21286
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | margin | merlin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The edge of the paper, typically left blank when printing but sometimes used for annotations etc. | A small falcon, Falco columbarius, that breeds in northern North America, Europe, and Asia. |
Where the eye mixes margin and merlin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between margin and merlin
A purely visual mix-up. margin (/ˈmɑː.d͡ʒɪn/) and merlin (/ˈmɝlɪn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
margin is recorded at frequency rank #4,537, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɑː.d͡ʒɪn/. merlin is at rank #16,749, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɝlɪn/.
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 21286, this pair ranks #424,990 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of margin vs merlin
Shared letters: imnr. Private to "margin": ag. Private to "merlin": el.
"margin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "merlin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "margin" and "merlin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "margin" or "merlin" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "margin" and "merlin" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "margin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merlin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #424,990 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "margin" and "merlin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Malin vs merlin". 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 #424,990 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.