marvsmarshTell them apart

Which to use

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

#674
“mar” frequency rank
#33,706
“marsh” frequency rank
34380
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mar marsh
Definition Cuerpo de agua salada que rodea los continentes de la Tierra. Pantano, ciénaga.

Where the eye mixes mar and marsh

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
mar
5 ch
marsh

Why the eye confuses mar with marsh

A purely visual mix-up. mar ([ˈmaɾ]) and marsh (/mɑɹʃ/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “mar” sits inside “marsh”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34380, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mar is recorded at frequency rank #674, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaɾ]. marsh is at rank #33,706, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɑɹʃ/.

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 34380, this pair ranks #191,765 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mar vs marsh

Shared letters: amr. Private to "mar": -. Private to "marsh": hs.

"mar" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "marsh" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marshamrsh · marhs · marrsh · marshh · marssh · masrh · mmarsh · mrash

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mar" for "marsh" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaɾ] versus /mɑɹʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mar" or "marsh"?
"mar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #674 in our Spanish list, against #33,706 for "marsh". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marsh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,765 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mar" and "marsh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marsh 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 #191,765 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