Which to use
“mari” and “maris” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,335
- “mari” frequency rank
- #13,002
- “maris” frequency rank
- 14337
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mari | maris |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Homme uni à une autre personne par les liens du mariage, époux. | Pluriel de mari. |
Same sound, different letters: mari vs maris
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. mari runs 4 letters (CVCV) against maris's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: mari vs maris
This is the hard kind. mari and maris are pronounced identically (\ma.ʁi\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mari” sits inside “maris”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mari is recorded at frequency rank #1,335, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁi\. maris is at rank #13,002, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁi\.
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 14337, this pair ranks #397,127 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mari vs maris
Shared letters: aimr. Private to "mari": -. Private to "maris": s.
"mari" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "maris" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mari" for "maris" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mari" vs "maris" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
"mari" and "maris" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "mari" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #397,127 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mari" and "maris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs maris". 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 #397,127 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.