# Marissa vs melissa

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### Marissa
*name · IPA /məˈɹɪsə/ · frequency rank #24,818*
A female given name from Spanish, a contraction of Maria Lisa or Maria Luisa, though sometimes regarded as a re-interpretation of the name Melissa as a homophone in another European language.

### melissa
*noun · IPA /məˈlɪsə/ · frequency rank #9,066*
A plant of the genus Melissa, especially lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), often used medicinally.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/marissa-vs-melissa