Which to use
“marea” is a noun and “María” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,022
- “marea” frequency rank
- #749
- “María” frequency rank
- 8771
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marea | María |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ascenso o flujo del agua que da lugar a la pleamar y descenso o reflujo que motiva la bajamar. Es un fenómeno que ocurre dos veces al día, ocasionado por la atracción gravitatoria de la Luna y del Sol. | Nombre de pila de mujer, popular en países de tradición cristiana por ser el nombre de la madre de Jesús. |
Where the eye mixes marea and María
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between marea and María
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marea is [maˈɾea] while María is [maˈɾia]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “marea” becomes í in “María”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marea is recorded at frequency rank #8,022, classified as anoun, pronounced [maˈɾea]. María is at rank #749, tagged as aname, pronounced [maˈɾia].
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 8771, this pair ranks #303,976 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of marea vs María
Shared letters: amr. Private to "marea": e. Private to "María": í.
"marea" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "María" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- marea ← amrea · maera · marae · marrea · mmarea · mraea
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "marea" for "María" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "marea" or "María" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "marea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "María" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #303,976 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marea" and "María" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "makes vs marea". 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 #303,976 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.