mecvsmerciWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mec is a noun, merci is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mec” is a noun and “merci” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,770
“mec” frequency rank
#38,047
“merci” frequency rank
80817
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mec merci
Definition Clipping of meconium. Thank you.

Letter map: mec vs merci

Shared letters muted; letters that set mec and merci apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. mec runs 3 letters (CVC) against merci's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
mec
5 ch
merci

Role in the sentence - mec and merci

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mec is anoun and mercianintj. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80817, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mec is recorded at frequency rank #42,770, classified as anoun. merci is at rank #38,047, tagged as anintj, pronounced /mɛːˈsiː/.

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 80817, this pair ranks #18,993 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mec vs merci

Shared letters: cem. Private to "mec": -. Private to "merci": ir.

"mec" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "merci" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • merci ← emrci · mecri · mercci · meric · merrci · mmerci · mreci

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mec" for "merci" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mec" is a noun and "merci" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mec" vs "merci" - which ranks higher?
"merci" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,047 in our English list, against #42,770 for "mec". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "mec" vs "merci" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "merci" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,993 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mec" and "merci" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mec vs MMP". 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 #18,993 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list