Which to use
“macron” and “marron” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,141
- “macron” frequency rank
- #9,510
- “marron” frequency rank
- 10651
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | macron | marron |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Fruit rond comestible de certaines variétés de châtaigniers, plus gros qu’une châtaigne ordinaire, de couleur brune. |
Where the eye mixes macron and marron
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. macron (\ma.kʁɔ̃\) and marron (\ma.ʁɔ̃\) 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 a single letter - c in “macron” becomes r in “marron”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10651, 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\. marron is at rank #9,510, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁɔ̃\.
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 10651, this pair ranks #412,165 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of macron vs marron
Shared letters: amnor. Private to "macron": c. Private to "marron": -.
"macron" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "marron" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "macron" and "marron" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "macron" or "marron"?
What to do next
You've compared "macron" and "marron". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "macron" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marron" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #412,165 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "macron" and "marron" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macros vs marron". 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
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.