Which to use
“marked” is an adjective and “marten” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,007
- “marked” frequency rank
- #43,775
- “marten” frequency rank
- 46782
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marked | marten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a visible or identifying mark. | Any carnivorous mammal of the genus Martes. |
Where the eye mixes marked and marten
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. marked and marten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: marked vs marten
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marked is /mɑːkt/ while marten is /ˈmɑː.tɪn/. 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 46782, 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/. marten is at rank #43,775, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɑː.tɪn/.
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 46782, this pair ranks #208,523 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of marked vs marten
Shared letters: aemr. Private to "marked": dk. Private to "marten": nt.
"marked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "marten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "marked" for "marten" ever safe?
Which is more common, "marked" or "marten"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "marked" and "marten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "marked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #208,523 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marked" and "marten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Marne vs marten". 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 #208,523 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.