Which to use
“mercy” is a noun and “merece” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,072
- “mercy” frequency rank
- #1,865
- “merece” frequency rank
- 29937
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mercy | merece |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Misericordia, compasión. | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de merecer o de merecerse. |
Where the eye mixes mercy and merece
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mercy with merece
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mercy is /ˈmɜːsi/ while merece is [meˈɾese]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29937, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mercy is recorded at frequency rank #28,072, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɜːsi/. merece is at rank #1,865, tagged as averb, pronounced [meˈɾese].
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 29937, this pair ranks #214,494 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mercy vs merece
Shared letters: cemr. Private to "mercy": y. Private to "merece": -.
"mercy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "merece" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mercy" for "merece" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "mercy" or "merece" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mercy" and "merece" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mercy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merece" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #214,494 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mercy" and "merece" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mec vs mercy". 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 #214,494 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.