Which to use
“mark” is a noun and “marry” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #949
- “mark” frequency rank
- #3,637
- “marry” frequency rank
- 4586
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mark | marry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Boundary, land within a boundary. | To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife. |
Where the eye mixes mark and marry
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mark is /mɑːk/ while marry is /ˈmæɹ.ɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mark is recorded at frequency rank #949, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɑːk/. marry is at rank #3,637, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈmæɹ.ɪ/.
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 4586, this pair ranks #518,410 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mark vs marry
Shared letters: amr. Private to "mark": k. Private to "marry": y.
"mark" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "marry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV