Which to use
“marginaux” is an adjective and “Marivaux” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,934
- “marginaux” frequency rank
- #35,145
- “Marivaux” frequency rank
- 58079
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marginaux | Marivaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de marginal. | Nom français, rendu célèbre par un écrivain français du XVIIIᵉ siècle. |
Where the eye mixes marginaux and Marivaux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. marginaux runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVVC) against Marivaux's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses marginaux with Marivaux
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marginaux is \maʁ.ʒi.no\ while Marivaux is \ma.ʁi.vo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marginaux is recorded at frequency rank #22,934, classified as anadj, pronounced \maʁ.ʒi.no\. Marivaux is at rank #35,145, tagged as aname, pronounced \ma.ʁi.vo\.
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 58079, this pair ranks #111,167 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of marginaux vs Marivaux
Shared letters: aimrux. Private to "marginaux": gn. Private to "Marivaux": v.
"marginaux" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC · "Marivaux" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "marginaux" and "Marivaux" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "marginaux" or "Marivaux"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "marginaux" and "Marivaux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "marginaux" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Marivaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #111,167 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marginaux" and "Marivaux" 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 #111,167 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.