marisvsmarkWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,002
“maris” frequency rank
#3,777
“mark” frequency rank
16779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maris mark
Definition Pluriel de mari. Reichsmark.

Where the eye mixes maris and mark

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
maris
4 ch
mark

Why the eye confuses maris with mark

A purely visual mix-up. maris (\ma.ʁi\) and mark (\maʁk\) 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 16779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maris is recorded at frequency rank #13,002, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁi\. mark is at rank #3,777, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁk\.

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 16779, this pair ranks #386,277 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maris vs mark

Shared letters: amr. Private to "maris": is. Private to "mark": k.

"maris" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mark" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marisamris · mairs · mariss · marris · marsi · mmaris · mrais
  • markamrk · makr · markk · marrk · mmark · mrak

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maris" for "mark" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ma.ʁi\ versus \maʁk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "maris" or "mark"?
"mark" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,777 in our French list, against #13,002 for "maris". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maris" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mark" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #386,277 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maris" and "mark" 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 #386,277 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