marceauvsmarteauxWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,590
“marceau” frequency rank
#28,645
“marteaux” frequency rank
48235
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marceau marteaux
Definition Variante de marsault. Pluriel de marteau.

Where the eye mixes marceau and marteaux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
marceau
8 ch
marteaux

Visual trap between marceau and marteaux

A purely visual mix-up. marceau (\maʁ.so\) and marteaux (\maʁ.to\) 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 48235, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marceau is recorded at frequency rank #19,590, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.so\. marteaux is at rank #28,645, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.to\.

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 48235, this pair ranks #180,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marceau vs marteaux

Shared letters: aemru. Private to "marceau": c. Private to "marteaux": tx.

"marceau" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV  ·  "marteaux" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marceauamrceau · macreau · marcaeu · marcceau · marceua · marecau · marrceau · mmarceau
  • marteauxamrteaux · maretaux · marrteaux · martaeux · marteauxx · marteaxu · marteuax · martteaux

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "marceau" and "marteaux" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\maʁ.so\ versus \maʁ.to\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "marceau" vs "marteaux" - which ranks higher?
"marceau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,590 in our French list, against #28,645 for "marteaux". 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 "marceau" and "marteaux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marceau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marteaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #180,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marceau" and "marteaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Marivaux vs marteaux". 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 #180,558 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