Which to use
“marlin” and “martins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,032
- “marlin” frequency rank
- #29,436
- “martins” frequency rank
- 77468
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marlin | martins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Merlin, sorte de cordage. | Pluriel de martin. |
Where the eye mixes marlin and martins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. marlin runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against martins's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between marlin and martins
A purely visual mix-up. marlin (\maʁ.lɛ̃\) and martins (\maʁ.tɛ̃\) 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 77468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marlin is recorded at frequency rank #48,032, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.lɛ̃\. martins is at rank #29,436, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.tɛ̃\.
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 77468, this pair ranks #28,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of marlin vs martins
Shared letters: aimnr. Private to "marlin": l. Private to "martins": st.
"marlin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "martins" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "marlin" and "martins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "marlin" or "martins" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "marlin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "martins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #28,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marlin" and "martins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marini vs marlin". 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 #28,275 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.