merlu
\mɛʁ.ly\
The verdict
“merlu” is uncommon French (frequency #85,012 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,012
- frequency rank, French
- 5,038
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Espèces de poissons osseux marins allongés à 2 nageoires dorsales et une anale.
Corpus desk
Index FR-merlu · merlu · French
merlu · rank #85,012 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #85,012
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,038
- PHOTO-FINISH menotte
Nearest frequency peer: menotte (-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 « merlu »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- meant
meant
14,992 corpus weight
- menotte
menotte
14,990 corpus weight
- merlu
merlu
14,989 corpus weight
- messa
messa
14,988 corpus weight
- Metellus
Metellus
14,987 corpus weight
- metric
metric
14,986 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « merlu » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | merlu |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \mɛʁ.ly\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #85,012 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « merlu » en français
Rare enough to double-check
merlu is uncommon French at frequency #85,012 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \mɛʁ.ly\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
merlu has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is merlu, spelled M-E-R-L-U.
Definition
- 1Espèces de poissons osseux marins allongés à 2 nageoires dorsales et une anale.
- 2Merlu commun.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how merlu appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
De nombreuses variétés de merlu sont pêchées dans l’Atlantique et le Pacifique et en mer Méditerranée.
Les pêcheurs du dimanche nous rapportaient : des céteaux, du meuil, du merlu ; à la saison des champignons ; des mousserons, des lactaires délicieux, des rosées des prés, des pleurotes du panicaut appelées communément argouanes.
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "merlu", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).