mairevsmarkWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,142
“maire” frequency rank
#3,777
“mark” frequency rank
4919
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maire mark
Definition Premier officier municipal d’une commune, municipalité ou arrondissement, élu, en France, par les conseillers municipaux à l’issue des élections municipales, en Suisse, soit directement par le corps électoral (Jura), soit chaque année pour une année par le conseil municipal (Genève). Reichsmark.

Where the eye mixes maire and mark

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

5 ch
maire
4 ch
mark

Look-alike desk: maire vs mark

A purely visual mix-up. maire (\mɛʁ\) and mark (\maʁk\) 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 4919, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maire is recorded at frequency rank #1,142, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\. mark is at rank #3,777, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁk\.

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 4919, this pair ranks #430,354 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maire vs mark

Shared letters: amr. Private to "maire": ei. Private to "mark": k.

"maire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "mark" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maireamire · maier · mairre · marie · miare · mmaire
  • markamrk · makr · markk · marrk · mmark · mrak

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maire" and "mark" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɛʁ\ versus \maʁk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "maire" or "mark" show up more?
"maire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,142 in our French list, against #3,777 for "mark". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "maire" and "mark" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mark" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #430,354 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maire" and "mark" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mark". 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 #430,354 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