Which to use
“maçon” is an adjective and “marco” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,438
- “maçon” frequency rank
- #6,630
- “marco” frequency rank
- 22068
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maçon | marco |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui appartient au métier des maçons ou leur est comparable. | Cadre, encadrement. |
Where the eye mixes maçon and marco
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. maçon (CVCVC) and marco (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: maçon vs marco
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maçon is \ma.sɔ̃\ while marco is \ˈmaɾ.ko\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22068, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maçon is recorded at frequency rank #15,438, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.sɔ̃\. marco is at rank #6,630, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmaɾ.ko\.
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 22068, this pair ranks #359,969 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maçon vs marco
Shared letters: amo. Private to "maçon": nç. Private to "marco": cr.
"maçon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "marco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- marco ← amrco · macro · marcco · marrco · mmarco · mraco
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maçon" for "marco" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "maçon" or "marco" 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 "maçon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #359,969 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maçon" and "marco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maçon vs macros". 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 #359,969 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.