Which to use
“marque” and “maru” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,747
- “marque” frequency rank
- #33,730
- “maru” frequency rank
- 81477
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marque | maru |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A brand of a manufactured product, especially of a motor car. | A Japanese ship, especially a merchant ship. |
Where the eye mixes marque and maru
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. marque runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against maru's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: marque vs maru
A purely visual mix-up. marque (/ˈmɑː(ɹ)k/) and maru (/ˈmɑːɹuː/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marque is recorded at frequency rank #47,747, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɑː(ɹ)k/. maru is at rank #33,730, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɑːɹuː/.
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 81477, this pair ranks #17,603 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of marque vs maru
Shared letters: amru. Private to "marque": eq. Private to "maru": -.
"marque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "maru" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "marque" for "maru" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "marque" or "maru" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "marque" and "maru" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "marque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maru" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,603 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marque" and "maru" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Marne vs marque". 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 #17,603 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.