merde
\mɛʁd\
The verdict
“merde” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #481. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #481
- frequency rank, French
- 5,038
- “M” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Excrément de personne ou d’animal.
Corpus desk
Index FR-merde · merde · French
merde · rank #481 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #481
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,038
- PHOTO-FINISH membres
Nearest frequency peer: membres (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “merde”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- important
important
99,523 corpus weight
- jouer
jouer
99,522 corpus weight
- membres
membres
99,521 corpus weight
- merde
merde
99,520 corpus weight
- parmi
parmi
99,519 corpus weight
- peine
peine
99,518 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “merde” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | merde |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \mɛʁd\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #481 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Où “merde” se place dans la fréquence du français
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around merde (IPA \mɛʁd\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #481 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for merde, with forms such as "emrde", "medre", and "merdde". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Mère", "mode", "more", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is merde, spelled M-E-R-D-E.
Definition
- 1Excrément de personne ou d’animal.
- 2Chose sans valeur ; objet de mauvaise qualité.
- 3Personne méprisable, sans valeur.
- 4Situation inextricable.
- 5Fait désagréable, incommodité, incident de la vie.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how merde appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ce pourquoi à tout, on préférait la merde du jeune homme sain — et parfois même celle, connue sous le nom de méconium, qui résultait de « la première déjection que font les enfants après leur naissance » — jusqu’à asservir un homme spécialement à cet office […]
Ici, cependant, la merde est un objet de culte. La patine n'est pas autre chose qu'une cochonnerie que le temps accumule sur les immeubles, sur les objets, sur les meubles, etc.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- emrde
- medre
- merdde
- mered
- merrde
- mmerde
- mrede
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of merde - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "merde"?
What does "merde" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "merde"?
How do you pronounce "merde"?
What language does "merde" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "merde", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "merde". Here's where to go from here.
- "merde" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "Mère". View pair
- 7 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #481 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "M" letter cohort. M–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.