Which to use
“madras” and “marais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,852
- “madras” frequency rank
- #6,846
- “marais” frequency rank
- 47698
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | madras | marais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étoffe dont la chaîne est de soie et la trame de coton, et qui est ainsi nommée parce qu’elle a été fabriquée d’abord à Madras, ville de l’Inde. | Étendue de terrain périodiquement inondée ou continuellement humide, recouverte d’une nappe d’eau peu profonde. |
Where the eye mixes madras and marais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. madras (CVCCVC) and marais (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: madras vs marais
A purely visual mix-up. madras (\ma.dʁɑs\) and marais (\ma.ʁɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47698, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
madras is recorded at frequency rank #40,852, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.dʁɑs\. marais is at rank #6,846, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁɛ\.
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 47698, this pair ranks #184,870 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of madras vs marais
Shared letters: amrs. Private to "madras": d. Private to "marais": i.
"madras" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "marais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "madras" and "marais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "madras" or "marais" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "madras" and "marais" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "madras" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #184,870 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "madras" and "marais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macros vs madras". 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 #184,870 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.