Which to use
“marquee” and “marquise” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,031
- “marquee” frequency rank
- #41,756
- “marquise” frequency rank
- 64787
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marquee | marquise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A large tent with open sides, used for outdoors entertainment. | A marchioness, especially one who is French. |
Where the eye mixes marquee and marquise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. marquee runs 7 letters (CVCCVVV) against marquise's 8 (CVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses marquee with marquise
A purely visual mix-up. marquee (/mɑː(ɹ)ˈkiː/) and marquise (/mɑː(ɹ)ˈkiːz/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64787, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marquee is recorded at frequency rank #23,031, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɑː(ɹ)ˈkiː/. marquise is at rank #41,756, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɑː(ɹ)ˈkiːz/.
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 64787, this pair ranks #75,979 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of marquee vs marquise
Shared letters: aemqru. Private to "marquee": -. Private to "marquise": is.
"marquee" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV · "marquise" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "marquee" and "marquise" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "marquee" vs "marquise" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "marquee" and "marquise" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "marquee" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marquise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #75,979 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marquee" and "marquise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marque vs marquise". 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 #75,979 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.