mépris

\me.pʁi\

/\me.pʁi\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“mépris” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,964. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,964
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
13
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sentiment par lequel on juge une personne ou une chose indigne d’estime, d’égards, d’attention.

Corpus desk

Index FR-mepris · mépris · French

mépris · rank #4,964 · 10 variants · 13 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,964
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 13 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH médiatique

Nearest frequency peer: médiatique (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « mépris »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « mépris » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

mépris vs mers
50% similar
mépris vs mères
50% similar
mépris vs meurs
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for mépris
PropertyValue
Headwordmépris
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\me.pʁi\
Letters6
Frequency rank#4,964
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs13
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « mépris »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).méprisse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « médiatique » (#4,963), « montrant » (#4,962), « panne » (#4,966). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « mépris » est au #4,964. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around mépris (IPA \me.pʁi\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,964 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for mépris, with forms such as "mepris", "mmépris", and "mpéris". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "mers", "mères", "meurs", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is mépris, spelled M-É-P-R-I-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sentiment par lequel on juge une personne ou une chose indigne d’estime, d’égards, d’attention.
  2. 2
    Sentiment par lequel on s’élève au-dessus de l’amour de la vie, de la crainte de la mort, du danger.
  3. 3
    Paroles ou actes de mépris.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how mépris appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. — Ici, c’était le mépris tout pur. Cela m’a fait penser au mot célèbre : on avale le mépris, mais on ne le mâche pas.
  2. Mes camarades commençaient à me prendre en grand mépris, comme on prend ici toute maladie, vous le savez.

Synonyms

dédaincontemnement

This word in other languages

contempt(English)desprecio(Español)Verachtung(Deutsch)menosprezo(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • mepris
  • mmépris
  • mpéris
  • mépirs
  • méppris
  • mépriss
  • méprris
  • méprsi
  • mérpis
  • émpris

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mépris - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

mepris1mmépris1mpéris2mépirs2méppris1mépriss1méprris1méprsi2
Edit distance from "mépris"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mépris"?
"mépris" is spelled M-É-P-R-I-S. The IPA pronunciation is \me.pʁi\.
What does "mépris" mean?
As a noun, "mépris" means: Sentiment par lequel on juge une personne ou une chose indigne d’estime, d’égards, d’attention.
What words are commonly confused with "mépris"?
"mépris" is commonly confused with "mers", "mères", "meurs". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "mépris"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mépris" is \me.pʁi\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mépris" come from?
"mépris" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mépris", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

mienne#4,961libéré#4,953league#4,951Johnny#4,950

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

mentale10 variantsrapides10 variantsrelatif10 variantsindiens10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list