marcavsmercêWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“marca” and “mercê” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,013
“marca” frequency rank
#14,186
“mercê” frequency rank
15199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marca mercê
Definition ato ou efeito de marcar paga, soldada, preço ou recompensa por algum trabalho ou serviço

Letter map: marca vs mercê

Shared letters muted; letters that set marca and mercê apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
marca
5 ch
mercê

Corpus notes: marca and mercê

marca and mercê are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15199, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marca is recorded at frequency rank #1,013, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɾ.kɐ/. mercê is at rank #14,186, tagged as anoun.

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 15199, this pair ranks #56,681 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marca vs mercê

Shared letters: cmr. Private to "marca": a. Private to "mercê": .

"marca" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mercê" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marcaamrca · macra · marac · marcca · marrca · mmarca · mraca

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "marca" and "mercê" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "marca" or "mercê"?
"marca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,013 in our Portuguese list, against #14,186 for "mercê". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "marca" and "mercê". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mercê" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,681 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marca" and "mercê" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mercê vs messe". 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 #56,681 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list