martvsmartyrWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#22,615
“mart” frequency rank
#12,419
“martyr” frequency rank
35034
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mart martyr
Definition Mars. Personne qui se laisse tuer (et souvent torturer) pour porter témoignage d'une foi chrétienne inébranlable.

Where the eye mixes mart and martyr

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mart runs 4 letters (CVCC) against martyr's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mart
6 ch
martyr

Visual trap between mart and martyr

A purely visual mix-up. mart (\mɑrt\) and martyr (\maʁ.tiʁ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “mart” sits inside “martyr”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35034, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mart is recorded at frequency rank #22,615, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑrt\. martyr is at rank #12,419, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.tiʁ\.

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 35034, this pair ranks #279,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mart vs martyr

Shared letters: amrt. Private to "mart": -. Private to "martyr": y.

"mart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "martyr" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mart ← amrt · marrt · martt · matr · mmart · mrat
  • martyr ← amrtyr · marrtyr · martry · marttyr · martyrr · martyyr · marytr · matryr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mart" for "martyr" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɑrt\ versus \maʁ.tiʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "mart" or "martyr" show up more?
"martyr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,419 in our French list, against #22,615 for "mart". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "martyr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #279,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mart" and "martyr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mart". 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 #279,645 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