marquevsmasqueTell them apart

Which to use

“marque” and “masque” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,747
“marque” frequency rank
#46,049
“masque” frequency rank
93796
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marque masque
Definition A brand of a manufactured product, especially of a motor car. A dramatic performance, often performed at court as a royal entertainment, consisting of dancing, dialogue, pantomime and song.

Where the eye mixes marque and masque

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
marque
6 ch
masque

Visual trap between marque and masque

A purely visual mix-up. marque (/ˈmɑː(ɹ)k/) and masque (/mæsk/) 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 a single letter - r in “marque” becomes s in “masque”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93796, 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/. masque is at rank #46,049, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mæsk/.

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 93796, this pair ranks #1,704 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of marque vs masque

Shared letters: aemqu. Private to "marque": r. Private to "masque": s.

"marque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "masque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marqueamrque · maqrue · marqeu · marqque · marrque · maruqe · mmarque · mraque
  • masqueamsque · maqsue · masqeu · masqque · massque · masuqe · mmasque · msaque

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "marque" and "masque" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɑː(ɹ)k/ versus /mæsk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "marque" or "masque"?
"masque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,049 in our English list, against #47,747 for "marque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "marque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "masque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,704 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marque" and "masque" 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 #1,704 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