marbrevsmembreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,109
“marbre” frequency rank
#1,034
“membre” frequency rank
7143
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marbre membre
Definition Toute pierre susceptible d'être polie Partie extérieure du corps d’un être humain ou d’un animal, distinguée de toutes les autres par quelque fonction particulière. Note d’usage : Se dit principalement des bras et des jambes ; ne se dit jamais de la tête.

Where the eye mixes marbre and membre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. marbre and membre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
marbre
6 ch
membre

Why the eye confuses marbre with membre

A purely visual mix-up. marbre (\maʁbʁ\) and membre (\mɑ̃bʁ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7143, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marbre is recorded at frequency rank #6,109, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁbʁ\. membre is at rank #1,034, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃bʁ\.

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 7143, this pair ranks #424,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of marbre vs membre

Shared letters: bemr. Private to "marbre": a. Private to "membre": -.

"marbre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "membre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marbre ← amrbre · mabrre · marbbre · marber · marbrre · marrbe · marrbre · mmarbre
  • membre ← emmbre · mebmre · membbre · membrre · memmbre · memrbe · mmebre · mmembre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "marbre" and "membre" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\maʁbʁ\ versus \mɑ̃bʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "marbre" or "membre"?
"membre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,034 in our French list, against #6,109 for "marbre". 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 "marbre" and "membre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marbre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "membre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #424,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marbre" and "membre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "membre vs meutre". 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 #424,090 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