Which to use
“mere” is an adjective and “mile” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,812
- “mere” frequency rank
- #2,544
- “mile” frequency rank
- 8356
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mere | mile |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected. | The international mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 1.609344 kilometers established by treaty among Anglophone nations in 1959, divided into 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set mere and mile apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
mere and mile form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mere is recorded at frequency rank #5,812, classified as anadj, pronounced /mɪə̯/. mile is at rank #2,544, tagged as anoun, pronounced /maɪ̯l/.
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 8356, this pair ranks #502,905 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mere" and "mile" be used interchangeably?
Remembering mere vs mile
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “mere”; for a noun, it's “mile”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “mere” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable