Which to use
“marcel” and “mares” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,250
- “marcel” frequency rank
- #30,698
- “mares” frequency rank
- 34948
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marcel | mares |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Débardeur, maillot de corps, tricot de peau qui découvre les épaules. | Pluriel de mare. |
Where the eye mixes marcel and mares
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: marcel vs mares
A purely visual mix-up. marcel (\maʁ.sɛl\) and mares (\maʁ\) 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 34948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marcel is recorded at frequency rank #4,250, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.sɛl\. mares is at rank #30,698, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ\.
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 34948, this pair ranks #280,249 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of marcel vs mares
Shared letters: aemr. Private to "marcel": cl. Private to "mares": s.
"marcel" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "mares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "marcel" for "mares" ever safe?
Frequency check: "marcel" vs "mares" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "marcel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mares" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #280,249 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marcel" and "mares" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macros vs mares". 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 #280,249 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.