mearvsmesTell them apart

Quick tell: mear is a verb, mes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mear” is a verb and “mes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,484
“mear” frequency rank
#403
“mes” frequency rank
17887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mear mes
Definition Evacuar del organismo la orina u otra secreción a través de la uretra. Cada una de las doce partes, de duración variable según el sistema pero similar al ciclo lunar, en que se divide el año.

Where the eye mixes mear and mes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mear
3 ch
mes

Visual trap between mear and mes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mear is [meˈaɾ] while mes is [ˈmes]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mear is recorded at frequency rank #17,484, classified as averb, pronounced [meˈaɾ]. mes is at rank #403, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmes].

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 17887, this pair ranks #270,259 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mear vs mes

Shared letters: em. Private to "mear": ar. Private to "mes": s.

"mear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mes" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mearemar · maer · mearr · mmear

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mear" for "mes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mear" is a verb and "mes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "mear" or "mes" show up more?
"mes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #403 in our Spanish list, against #17,484 for "mear". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "mear" and "mes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #270,259 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mear" and "mes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mear vs mur". 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 #270,259 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list