mériter

\me.ʁi.te\

/\me.ʁi.te\/ verb

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

The verdict

“mériter” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #11,260. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#11,260
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
18
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Être digne, se rendre digne de.

Corpus desk

Index FR-meriter · mériter · French

mériter · rank #11,260 · 11 variants · 18 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #11,260
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 18 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH méfiance

Nearest frequency peer: méfiance (-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 « mériter »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « mériter » 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).

mériter vs métier
71% similar
mériter vs méritez
86% similar
mériter vs militer
71% similar

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

Key facts for mériter
PropertyValue
Headwordmériter
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\me.ʁi.te\
Letters7
Frequency rank#11,260
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs18
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « mériter »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).mériterse 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 « méfiance » (#11,259), « next » (#11,261), « multiplient » (#11,258). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « mériter » est au #11,260. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around mériter (IPA \me.ʁi.te\), averb. Corpus frequency is #11,260 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for mériter, with forms such as "meriter", "mmériter", and "mréiter". 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 18 confusable-pair relationships, "métier", "méritez", "militer", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 mériter, spelled M-É-R-I-T-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Être digne, se rendre digne de.
  2. 2
    Avoir droit à la reconnaissance ou à la considération de..., pour les services rendus.
  3. 3
    Être digne de récompense par ses talents ou par ses services.
  4. 4
    Encourir ; attirer sur soi.
  5. 5
    Se dit aussi des choses, en bonne ou mauvaise part.
  6. 6
    Faire obtenir une faveur ou un bienfait à quelqu’un.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Hélas! si tous les héros n'ont pas été récompensés comme ils méritaient de l'être, tous les traîtres n'ont pas été punis.
  2. Que répondre à un homme qui vous dit qu’il aime mieux obéir à Dieu qu’aux hommes, et qui, en conséquence, est sûr de mériter le ciel en vous égorgeant ?

This word in other languages

deserve(English)merecer(Español)verdienen(Deutsch)merecer(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • meriter
  • mmériter
  • mréiter
  • méirter
  • mérietr
  • mériterr
  • méritre
  • méritter
  • mérriter
  • mértier
  • émriter

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mériter - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

meriter1mmériter1mréiter2méirter2mérietr2mériterr1méritre2méritter1
Edit distance from "mériter"

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 "mériter"?
"mériter" is spelled M-É-R-I-T-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \me.ʁi.te\.
What does "mériter" mean?
As a verb, "mériter" means: Être digne, se rendre digne de.
What words are commonly confused with "mériter"?
"mériter" is commonly confused with "métier", "méritez", "militer". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "mériter"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mériter" is \me.ʁi.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mériter" come from?
"mériter" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "mériter", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

lésions#11,254lunaire#11,253pluriel#11,273promise#11,275

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

planning11 variantslibanais11 variantsinédits11 variantsreconnues11 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list