Which to use
“Medea” is a name and “mere” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,964
- “Medea” frequency rank
- #5,812
- “mere” frequency rank
- 44776
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Medea | mere |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An enchantress who helped Jason obtain the Golden Fleece. | Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected. |
Where the eye mixes Medea and mere
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Medea and mere
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Medea is /mɪˈdiːə/ while mere is /mɪə̯/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44776, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Medea is recorded at frequency rank #38,964, classified as aname, pronounced /mɪˈdiːə/. 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 44776, this pair ranks #227,438 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Medea vs mere
Shared letters: em. Private to "Medea": ad. Private to "mere": r.
"Medea" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "mere" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Medea" for "mere" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "Medea" or "mere" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Medea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #227,438 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Medea" and "mere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Medea vs Modena". 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 #227,438 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.