magievsmariConfusable pair

Which to use

“magie” and “mari” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,622
“magie” frequency rank
#1,335
“mari” frequency rank
4957
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magie mari
Definition Art prétendu auquel on attribue le pouvoir d’opérer, par des moyens occultes, des effets surprenants et merveilleux. Homme uni à une autre personne par les liens du mariage, époux.

Where the eye mixes magie and mari

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
magie
4 ch
mari

Look-alike desk: magie vs mari

A purely visual mix-up. magie (\ma.ʒi\) and mari (\ma.ʁi\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4957, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

magie is recorded at frequency rank #3,622, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʒi\. mari is at rank #1,335, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁi\.

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 4957, this pair ranks #430,263 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of magie vs mari

Shared letters: aim. Private to "magie": eg. Private to "mari": r.

"magie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "mari" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magieamgie · magei · maige · mgaie · mmagie
  • mariamri · mair · marri · mmari · mrai

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "magie" for "mari" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ma.ʒi\ versus \ma.ʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "magie" or "mari" show up more?
"mari" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,335 in our French list, against #3,622 for "magie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "magie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mari" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #430,263 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "magie" and "mari" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magie vs maid". 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 #430,263 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list