MaryvsmoreWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Mary is a name, more is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Mary” is a name and “more” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,730
“Mary” frequency rank
#49
“more” frequency rank
1779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mary more
Definition A female given name from Aramaic or Hebrew. comparative degree of many: in greater number. (Used for a discrete quantity.)

Where the eye mixes Mary and more

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Mary
4 ch
more

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mary is /ˈmɛə.ɹi/ while more is /mɔː(ɹ)/. 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 (name vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mary is recorded at frequency rank #1,730, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈmɛə.ɹi/. more is at rank #49, tagged as adet, pronounced /mɔː(ɹ)/.

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 1779, this pair ranks #526,675 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mary vs more

Shared letters: mr. Private to "Mary": ay. Private to "more": eo.

"Mary" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "more" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Marymaryy · mayr · mmary · mray
  • moremmore · moer · morre · mroe · omre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Mary" and "more" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mary" is a name and "more" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Mary" or "more"?
"more" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #49 in our English list, against #1,730 for "Mary". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list