Which to use
“marked” is an adjective and “Marley” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,007
- “marked” frequency rank
- #15,861
- “Marley” frequency rank
- 18868
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marked | Marley |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a visible or identifying mark. | A hamlet in Kingston parish, Canterbury district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TR1850). |
Where the eye mixes marked and Marley
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between marked and Marley
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marked is /mɑːkt/ while Marley is /ˈmɑ(ɹ)li/. 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 name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18868, 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/. Marley is at rank #15,861, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈmɑ(ɹ)li/.
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 18868, this pair ranks #442,072 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of marked vs Marley
Shared letters: aemr. Private to "marked": dk. Private to "Marley": ly.
"marked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "Marley" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "marked" and "Marley" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "marked" or "Marley" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "marked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Marley" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #442,072 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marked" and "Marley" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Marley vs Marne". 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 #442,072 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.