manuvsmarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“manu” and “mar” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,894
“manu” frequency rank
#674
“mar” frequency rank
16568
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manu mar
Definition Ave, pájaro. Cuerpo de agua salada que rodea los continentes de la Tierra.

Where the eye mixes manu and mar

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

4 ch
manu
3 ch
mar

Visual trap between manu and mar

A purely visual mix-up. manu ([ˈma.nu]) and mar ([ˈmaɾ]) 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 16568, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manu is recorded at frequency rank #15,894, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈma.nu]. mar is at rank #674, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaɾ].

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 16568, this pair ranks #275,617 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manu vs mar

Shared letters: am. Private to "manu": nu. Private to "mar": r.

"manu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mar" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manuamnu · mannu · maun · mmanu · mnau

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "manu" for "mar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈma.nu] versus [ˈmaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "manu" or "mar" show up more?
"mar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #674 in our Spanish list, against #15,894 for "manu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,617 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manu" and "mar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manu vs math". 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 #275,617 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list