merde
\mɛʁd\
The verdict
“merde” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #481 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #481
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Excrément de personne ou d’animal.
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) |
Where “merde” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for merde is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \mɛʁd\. Corpus data places it at rank #481 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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?
Using “merde”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is M-E-R-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \mɛʁd\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Mère” - see the side-by-side comparison. merde vs Mère
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.