Marquee or marquis?
marquee is a noun meaning “A large tent with open sides, used for outdoors entertainment”; marquis is a noun meaning “A nobleman in England, France, and Germany, of a rank next below that of duke…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) marquis is about 1.9 times as common as marquee.
What is the difference between marquee and marquis?
| marquee | marquis | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective, verb | noun |
| Meaning | AustraliaUKA large tent with open sides, used for outdoors entertainment USA projecting canopy over an entrance, especially one with a sign that displays the name of the establishment or other information of it Most famous; preeminent | A nobleman in England, France, and Germany, of a rank next below that of duke, but above a count. Originally, the marquis was an officer whose duty was to… Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genus Bassarona (or Euthalia) |
| Example | Rectangular Marquee Tool | none recorded |
| Forms | marquees | marquises |
| Pronunciation | /(ˌ)mɑː(ɹ)ˈkiː/ | /ˈmɑː.kwɪs/ /mɑɹˈki/ /ˈmɑɹ.kwɪs/ |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words | 2.8 times per million words |
Sources: marquee and marquis in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of marquee and marquis
marquee
- 1
AustraliaUKA large tent with open sides, used for outdoors entertainment
- 2
Most famous; preeminent
- 3
To select (an object or region) with the marquee selection tool
- 4
USA projecting canopy over an entrance, especially one with a sign that displays the name of the establishment or other information of it
- 5
To display text prominently at the top, as in a video
The text was marqueed at the end of the presentation
- 6
USLights that turn on and off in sequence, or scrolling text, as these are common elements on a marquee
- 7
An illuminated panel that appears above the screen/playfield of an arcade game, typically displaying the game's title and manufacturer
- 8
A banner on a web page displaying text that scrolls horizontally
marquis
- 1
A nobleman in England, France, and Germany, of a rank next below that of duke, but above a count. Originally, the marquis was an officer whose duty was to guard the marches or frontiers of the…
- 2
Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genus Bassarona (or Euthalia)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, marquee or marquis?
marquee appears 1.5 times per million words; marquis 2.8 times per million words.
marquee 1.5 times per million wordsmarquis 2.8 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search marquee vs marquis?
“marquee vs marquis” is searched about 590 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“marquis vs marquee”, “marquee or marquis”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.