MeiervsmereWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Meier is a name, mere is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Meier” is a name and “mere” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,496
“Meier” frequency rank
#5,812
“mere” frequency rank
38308
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Meier mere
Definition A surname from German. Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.

Letter map: Meier vs mere

Shared letters muted; letters that set Meier and mere apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Meier
4 ch
mere

Grammar separator: Meier vs mere

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Meier is aname and mereanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38308, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Meier is recorded at frequency rank #32,496, classified as aname. 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 38308, this pair ranks #287,055 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Meier vs mere

Shared letters: emr. Private to "Meier": i. Private to "mere": -.

"Meier" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "mere" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meieremier · meeir · meierr · meire · mieer · mmeier
  • mereemre · merre · mmere · mree

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Meier" for "mere" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Meier" is a name and "mere" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Meier" vs "mere" - which ranks higher?
"mere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,812 in our English list, against #32,496 for "Meier". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Meier" and "mere".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Meier" 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 #287,055 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Meier" and "mere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs miser". 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 #287,055 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