merder

\mɛʁ.de\

/\mɛʁ.de\/ verb

The verdict

“merder” is uncommon French (frequency #50,358 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,358
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ne pas arriver à faire le meilleur, faire de la merde.

Corpus desk

Index FR-merder · merder · French

merder · rank #50,358 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,358
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH merchandising

Nearest frequency peer: merchandising (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « merder »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « merder » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for merder
PropertyValue
Headwordmerder
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\mɛʁ.de\
Letters6
Frequency rank#50,358
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « merder » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).merdertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « merchandising » (#50,357), « mesquine » (#50,359), « mercator » (#50,356). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « merder » est au #50,358. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

merder is uncommon French at frequency #50,358 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \mɛʁ.de\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Ne pas arriver à faire le meilleur, faire de la merde.".

merder doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is merder, spelled M-E-R-D-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ne pas arriver à faire le meilleur, faire de la merde.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. « Tu sais », dit-il au moment où le serveur posait leurs verres devant eux, « j’ai vraiment merdé sur cette affaire, du début à la fin. Si l’autre n’avait pas remarqué l’absence de son tableau, on serait encore en train de patauger.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

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 "merder"?
"merder" is spelled M-E-R-D-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \mɛʁ.de\.
What does "merder" mean?
As a verb, "merder" means: Ne pas arriver à faire le meilleur, faire de la merde.
How do you pronounce "merder"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "merder" is \mɛʁ.de\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "merder" come from?
"merder" 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 "merder", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list