Which to use
“marde” and “marvel” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,043
- “marde” frequency rank
- #11,436
- “marvel” frequency rank
- 47479
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marde | marvel |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Merde. | Merveille. |
Where the eye mixes marde and marvel
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: marde vs marvel
A purely visual mix-up. marde (\maʁd\) and marvel (\ˈmɑɹ.vəl\) 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 47479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marde is recorded at frequency rank #36,043, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁd\. marvel is at rank #11,436, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmɑɹ.vəl\.
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 47479, this pair ranks #186,625 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of marde vs marvel
Shared letters: aemr. Private to "marde": d. Private to "marvel": lv.
"marde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "marvel" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "marde" for "marvel" ever safe?
Frequency check: "marde" vs "marvel" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "marde" and "marvel" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "marde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marvel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #186,625 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marde" and "marvel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs marde". 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 #186,625 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.