Which to use
“marco” and “maré” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,754
- “marco” frequency rank
- #7,659
- “maré” frequency rank
- 9413
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marco | maré |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sinal de demarcação que se põe nos limites territoriais | movimento periódico de subida e descida das águas do mar |
Where the eye mixes marco and maré
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses marco with maré
A purely visual mix-up. marco (/ˈmaɾ.ku/) and maré (/mɐ.ˈɾɛ/) 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 9413, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marco is recorded at frequency rank #1,754, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɾ.ku/. maré is at rank #7,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɾɛ/.
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 9413, this pair ranks #64,021 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of marco vs maré
Shared letters: amr. Private to "marco": co. Private to "maré": é.
"marco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "maré" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- marco ← amrco · macro · marcco · maroc · marrco · mmarco · mraco
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "marco" and "maré" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "marco" or "maré"?
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 "marco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #64,021 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marco" and "maré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs maré". 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 #64,021 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.