maravsmoaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#22,326
“mara” frequency rank
#45,173
“moa” frequency rank
67499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mara moa
Definition Rongeur de grande taille du genre Dolichotis vivant en Argentine dans la pampa, les steppes herbacées et les déserts broussailleux. Une des espèces d'oiseaux terrestres (ratites) géants (jusqu'à trois mètres de haut), incapables de voler, originaires de Nouvelle-Zélande, éteintes après l'arrivée des ancêtres des Maori.

Where the eye mixes mara and moa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mara
3 ch
moa

Why the eye confuses mara with moa

A purely visual mix-up. mara (\ma.ʁa\) and moa (\mɔ.a\) 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 67499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mara is recorded at frequency rank #22,326, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁa\. moa is at rank #45,173, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.a\.

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 67499, this pair ranks #63,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mara vs moa

Shared letters: am. Private to "mara": r. Private to "moa": o.

"mara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "moa" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maraamra · maar · marra · mmara · mraa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mara" and "moa" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ma.ʁa\ versus \mɔ.a\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "mara" or "moa" show up more?
"mara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,326 in our French list, against #45,173 for "moa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mara" and "moa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moa vs MWh". 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 #63,197 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