Which to use
“mark” and “marks” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #949
- “mark” frequency rank
- #3,073
- “marks” frequency rank
- 4022
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mark | marks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Boundary, land within a boundary. | plural of mark |
Where the eye mixes mark and marks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. mark (/mɑːk/) and marks (/mɑɹks/) 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 extra letter(s) - “mark” sits inside “marks”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4022, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mark is recorded at frequency rank #949, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɑːk/. marks is at rank #3,073, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɑɹks/.
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 4022, this pair ranks #520,249 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mark vs marks
Shared letters: akmr. Private to "mark": -. Private to "marks": s.
"mark" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "marks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC