maréevsmarvelConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#8,269
“marée” frequency rank
#11,436
“marvel” frequency rank
19705
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marée marvel
Definition Mouvement d’ondulation de la surface de la mer, provoquant une baisse et une hausse de son niveau sur un rythme journalier ou semi-journalier selon les régions du globe. Merveille.

Where the eye mixes marée and marvel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
marée
6 ch
marvel

Look-alike desk: marée vs marvel

A purely visual mix-up. marée (\ma.ʁe\) 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 19705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marée is recorded at frequency rank #8,269, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁe\. 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 19705, this pair ranks #371,954 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of marée vs marvel

Shared letters: aemr. Private to "marée": é. Private to "marvel": lv.

"marée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "marvel" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marvelamrvel · marevl · marrvel · marvell · marvle · marvvel · mavrel · mmarvel

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "marée" and "marvel" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ma.ʁe\ versus \ˈmɑɹ.vəl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "marée" or "marvel" show up more?
"marée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,269 in our French list, against #11,436 for "marvel". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "marée" 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 #371,954 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marée" and "marvel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maël vs marvel". 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 #371,954 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