marcovsmarshTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,754
“marco” frequency rank
#25,040
“marsh” frequency rank
26794
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marco marsh
Definition sinal de demarcação que se põe nos limites territoriais brejo

Where the eye mixes marco and marsh

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
marco
5 ch
marsh

Why the eye confuses marco with marsh

A purely visual mix-up. marco (/ˈmaɾ.ku/) and marsh (/mɑɹʃ/) 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 26794, 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/. marsh is at rank #25,040, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɑɹʃ/.

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 26794, this pair ranks #42,298 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marco vs marsh

Shared letters: amr. Private to "marco": co. Private to "marsh": hs.

"marco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "marsh" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marcoamrco · macro · marcco · maroc · marrco · mmarco · mraco
  • marshamrsh · marhs · marrsh · marshh · marssh · masrh · mmarsh · mrash

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "marco" and "marsh" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmaɾ.ku/ versus /mɑɹʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "marco" or "marsh"?
"marco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,754 in our Portuguese list, against #25,040 for "marsh". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "marco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marsh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,298 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marco" and "marsh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marsh vs mesh". 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 #42,298 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