Which to use
“male” and “mere” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,371
- “male” frequency rank
- #5,812
- “mere” frequency rank
- 7183
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | male | mere |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to the gender which is typically associated with it. | Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected. |
Where the eye mixes male and mere
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. male (/meɪl/) and mere (/mɪə̯/) 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 7183, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
male is recorded at frequency rank #1,371, classified as anadj, pronounced /meɪl/. mere is at rank #5,812, tagged as anadj, pronounced /mɪə̯/.
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 7183, this pair ranks #508,208 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of male vs mere
Shared letters: em. Private to "male": al. Private to "mere": r.
"male" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mere" · 4 letters · shape CVCV