mérite
\me.ʁit\
The verdict
“mérite” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,395. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,395
- frequency rank, French
- 5,038
- “M” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ce qui rend une personne digne d’estime.
Corpus desk
Index FR-merite · mérite · French
mérite · rank #1,395 · 9 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,395
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,038
- PHOTO-FINISH Marseille
Nearest frequency peer: Marseille (-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 « mérite »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- faveur
faveur
98,609 corpus weight
- front
front
98,608 corpus weight
- Marseille
Marseille
98,607 corpus weight
- mérite
mérite
98,606 corpus weight
- noms
noms
98,605 corpus weight
- Noël
Noël
98,604 corpus weight
What this shows « mérite » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
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 | mérite |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \me.ʁit\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,395 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « mérite »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around mérite (IPA \me.ʁit\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,395 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for mérite, with forms such as "merite", "mmérite", and "mréite". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "morte", "mette", "meute", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is mérite, spelled M-É-R-I-T-E.
Definition
- 1Ce qui rend une personne digne d’estime.
- 2Ce que les choses ont de bon et d’estimable.
- 3Ce qui rend Dieu miséricordieux pour ses fidèles.
- 4Les souffrances et la mort de Jésus-Christ, les bonnes œuvres des saints, en tant qu’elles ont satisfait, pour les adeptes, à la justice divine.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mérite appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
L’auteur de l’explication, Florentin de Thierrat, était né à Mirecourt vers la fin du XVIᵉ siècle ; ce fut un jurisconsulte de grand mérite, tout à la fois habile, conciliant ; on l’appelait l’arbitre de la province.
Mais les hommes n’échappent pas à leur destinée, et la mienne consiste à gagner deux mille francs. Je ne suis point né pour acquérir de la fortune, et je m’en consolais, jadis, en me disant que chacun, sur la terre, est payé selon ses mérites.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- merite
- mmérite
- mréite
- méirte
- mériet
- méritte
- mérrite
- mértie
- émrite
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mérite - 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 "mérite"?
What does "mérite" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "mérite"?
How do you pronounce "mérite"?
What language does "mérite" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mérite", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).