Which to use
“macron” is a noun and “marin” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,141
- “macron” frequency rank
- #3,936
- “marin” frequency rank
- 5077
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | macron | marin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Diacritique de l’alphabet latin, grec ou cyrillique, qui prend la forme d’une barre horizontale (‹ ◌̄ ›) que l’on place au-dessus d’une lettre pour indiquer une abbréviation, une qualité phonétique ou un ton distinct ; par exemple dans certaines transcriptions au-dessus d’une lettre de voyelle pour indiquer qu’elle est longue comme ā, ē, ī, ō, ū et ȳ, dans la transcription pinyin de la langue chinoise indiquant le ton plat, ou premier ton comme ā, ē, ī, ō, ū et ǖ. | Qui appartient à la mer. |
Where the eye mixes macron and marin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between macron and marin
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: macron is \ma.kʁɔ̃\ while marin is \ma.ʁɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
macron is recorded at frequency rank #1,141, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.kʁɔ̃\. marin is at rank #3,936, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.ʁɛ̃\.
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 5077, this pair ranks #429,966 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of macron vs marin
Shared letters: amnr. Private to "macron": co. Private to "marin": i.
"macron" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "marin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "macron" and "marin" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "macron" or "marin" 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 "macron" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,966 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "macron" and "marin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs marin". 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 #429,966 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.