marcavsmercyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,143
“marca” frequency rank
#28,072
“mercy” frequency rank
29215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marca mercy
Definition Acción o efecto de marcar. Misericordia, compasión.

Where the eye mixes marca and mercy

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

5 ch
marca
5 ch
mercy

Visual trap between marca and mercy

A purely visual mix-up. marca ([ˈmaɾka]) and mercy (/ˈmɜːsi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marca is recorded at frequency rank #1,143, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaɾka]. mercy is at rank #28,072, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɜːsi/.

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 29215, this pair ranks #218,131 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marca vs mercy

Shared letters: cmr. Private to "marca": a. Private to "mercy": ey.

"marca" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mercy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marcaamrca · macra · marac · marcca · marrca · mmarca · mraca
  • mercyemrcy · mecry · merccy · mercyy · merrcy · meryc · mmercy · mrecy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marca" for "mercy" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaɾka] versus /ˈmɜːsi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "marca" vs "mercy" - which ranks higher?
"marca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,143 in our Spanish list, against #28,072 for "mercy". 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 "marca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mercy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,131 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marca" and "mercy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mec vs mercy". 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 #218,131 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