marevsmargaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#25,350
“mare” frequency rank
#30,564
“marga” frequency rank
55914
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mare marga
Definition Madre. Roca sedimentaria grisácea, compuesta principalmente por carbonato de calcio y arcilla. Se deposita en ambientes marinos y lacustres. Se usa como abono y en la fabricación de cemento.

Where the eye mixes mare and marga

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mare runs 4 letters (CVCV) against marga's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mare
5 ch
marga

Look-alike desk: mare vs marga

A purely visual mix-up. mare ([ˈma.ɾə]) and marga ([ˈmaɾɣ̞a]) 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 55914, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mare is recorded at frequency rank #25,350, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈma.ɾə]. marga is at rank #30,564, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaɾɣ̞a].

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 55914, this pair ranks #76,799 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mare vs marga

Shared letters: amr. Private to "mare": e. Private to "marga": g.

"mare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "marga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mareamre · marre · mmare · mrae
  • margaamrga · magra · marag · margga · marrga · mmarga · mraga

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mare" and "marga" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈma.ɾə] versus [ˈmaɾɣ̞a]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mare" vs "marga" - which ranks higher?
"mare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,350 in our Spanish list, against #30,564 for "marga". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "mare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #76,799 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mare" and "marga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marga vs minga". 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 #76,799 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