Which to use
“marginal” and “marginaux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,762
- “marginal” frequency rank
- #22,934
- “marginaux” frequency rank
- 40696
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marginal | marginaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est situé dans la marge d’un texte. | Masculin pluriel de marginal. |
Where the eye mixes marginal and marginaux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between marginal and marginaux
A purely visual mix-up. marginal (\maʁ.ʒi.nal\) and marginaux (\maʁ.ʒi.no\) 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 40696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marginal is recorded at frequency rank #17,762, classified as anadj, pronounced \maʁ.ʒi.nal\. marginaux is at rank #22,934, tagged as anadj, pronounced \maʁ.ʒi.no\.
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 40696, this pair ranks #238,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of marginal vs marginaux
Shared letters: agimnr. Private to "marginal": l. Private to "marginaux": ux.
"marginal" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "marginaux" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "marginal" for "marginaux" ever safe?
Frequency check: "marginal" vs "marginaux" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "marginal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marginaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #238,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marginal" and "marginaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marginaux vs Marivaux". 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 #238,603 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.