markvsMèreTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,777
“mark” frequency rank
#292
“Mère” frequency rank
4069
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mark Mère
Definition Reichsmark. Nom donné à la Vierge Marie.

Where the eye mixes mark and Mère

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mark
4 ch
Mère

Look-alike desk: mark vs Mère

A purely visual mix-up. mark (\maʁk\) and Mère (\mɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4069, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mark is recorded at frequency rank #3,777, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁk\. Mère is at rank #292, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\.

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 4069, this pair ranks #432,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mark vs Mère

Shared letters: mr. Private to "mark": ak. Private to "Mère": .

"mark" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Mère" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • markamrk · makr · markk · marrk · mmark · mrak

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mark" and "Mère" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\maʁk\ versus \mɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mark" or "Mère"?
"Mère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #292 in our French list, against #3,777 for "mark". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "mark" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #432,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mark" and "Mère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mark". 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 #432,545 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