markedvsmarkupTell them apart

Quick tell: marked is a adjective, markup is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“marked” is an adjective and “markup” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,007
“marked” frequency rank
#25,838
“markup” frequency rank
28845
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marked markup
Definition Having a visible or identifying mark. The percentage or amount by which a seller hikes up their buy-in price when determining their selling price.

Where the eye mixes marked and markup

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
marked
6 ch
markup

Look-alike desk: marked vs markup

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marked is /mɑːkt/ while markup is /ˈmɑː(ɹ)k.ʌp/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28845, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marked is recorded at frequency rank #3,007, classified as anadj, pronounced /mɑːkt/. markup is at rank #25,838, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɑː(ɹ)k.ʌp/.

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 28845, this pair ranks #367,831 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marked vs markup

Shared letters: akmr. Private to "marked": de. Private to "markup": pu.

"marked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "markup" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • markedamrked · makred · marekd · markde · markedd · markked · marrked · mmarked
  • markupamrkup · makrup · markkup · markpu · markupp · marrkup · marukp · mmarkup

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "marked" and "markup" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "marked" is an adjective and "markup" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "marked" or "markup" show up more?
"marked" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,007 in our English list, against #25,838 for "markup". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "markup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #367,831 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marked" and "markup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "markup vs mockup". 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 #367,831 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list