mecvsmeuWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“mec” and “meu” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#42,770
“mec” frequency rank
#48,897
“meu” frequency rank
91667
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mec meu
Definition Clipping of meconium. Meum athamanticum, a European herb.

Letter map: mec vs meu

Shared letters muted; letters that set mec and meu apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. mec (CVC) and meu (CVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
mec
3 ch
meu

Spelling & dictionary notes on mec vs meu

mec and meu are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - c in “mec” becomes u in “meu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91667, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mec is recorded at frequency rank #42,770, classified as anoun. meu is at rank #48,897, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmjuː/.

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 91667, this pair ranks #3,121 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mec vs meu

Shared letters: em. Private to "mec": c. Private to "meu": u.

"mec" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "meu" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mec" for "meu" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - c in “mec” becomes u in “meu”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "mec" vs "meu" - which ranks higher?
"mec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,770 in our English list, against #48,897 for "meu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mec" and "meu".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,121 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mec" and "meu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meu vs MMP". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #3,121 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