marais

noun

"marais" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“marais” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #41,753. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#41,753
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A marsh; a marshy area, one intermittently covered with water, particularly in Louisiana, or in other French-speaking areas.

Corpus desk

Index EN-marais · marais · English

marais · rank #41,753 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #41,753
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH Marbella

Nearest frequency peer: Marbella (+1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “marais”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “marais” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

marais vs mars
67% similar
marais vs Mari
50% similar
marais vs marks
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for marais
PropertyValue
Headwordmarais
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters6
Frequency rank#41,753
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “marais”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).maraislands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “Marbella” (#41,754), “Malian” (#41,750), “marquise” (#41,756). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “marais” is #41,753. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around marais, anoun. Corpus frequency is #41,753 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A marsh; a marshy area, one intermittently covered with water, particularly in Louisiana, or in other French-speaking areas.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for marais, with forms such as "amrais", "maaris", and "maraiss". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mars", "Mari", "marks", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French marais (and in Louisiana, Louisiana French marais). The correct English form is marais, spelled M-A-R-A-I-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    A marsh; a marshy area, one intermittently covered with water, particularly in Louisiana, or in other French-speaking areas.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how marais appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. […] and as all along the sea-coast, at least in those parts where I have resided, there has always been a vast extent of marais, or marsh, which has been bien communal, the poorer classes experienced no obstacle to their living in this manner. And no porte d'arme is required.
  2. […] and when rains filled the maraises, and the cold nor'westers blew from Texas and the sod was spongy with much water, and he went out for feathered game, the numberless mallards, black ducks, gray ducks, teal - […]

Etymology

Borrowed from French marais (and in Louisiana, Louisiana French marais).

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • amrais
  • maaris
  • maraiss
  • marasi
  • marias
  • marrais
  • mmarais
  • mraais

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of marais - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

amrais2maaris2maraiss1marasi2marias2marrais1mmarais1mraais2
Edit distance from "marais"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "marais"?
"marais" is spelled M-A-R-A-I-S.
What does "marais" mean?
As a noun, "marais" means: A marsh; a marshy area, one intermittently covered with water, particularly in Louisiana, or in other French-speaking areas.
What words are commonly confused with "marais"?
"marais" is commonly confused with "mars", "Mari", "marks". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What is the origin of the word "marais"?
Borrowed from French marais (and in Louisiana, Louisiana French marais). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "marais", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list