mess

\mɛs\

/\mɛs\/ noun

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

The verdict

“mess” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #25,732) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#25,732
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
3
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Lieu où des officiers ou des sous-officiers prennent leurs repas ensemble.

Corpus desk

Index FR-mess · mess · French

mess · rank #25,732 · 3 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #25,732
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 3 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH mercredis

Nearest frequency peer: mercredis (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « mess »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « mess » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

mess vs ms
50% similar
mess vs mis
50% similar
mess vs met
50% similar

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

Key facts for mess
PropertyValue
Headwordmess
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mɛs\
Letters4
Frequency rank#25,732
Misspellings tracked3
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « mess »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).messse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « mercredis » (#25,731), « miniers » (#25,733), « mendiants » (#25,730). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « mess » est au #25,732. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for mess is neighbouring look-alikes ("ms", "mis", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \mɛs\. Frequency #25,732 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Gloss: "Lieu où des officiers ou des sous-officiers prennent leurs repas ensemble.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for mess, with forms such as "emss", "mmess", and "mses". 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, "ms", "mis", "met", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is mess, spelled M-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lieu où des officiers ou des sous-officiers prennent leurs repas ensemble.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les officiers de la garde, eux, vont à leur mess.
  2. Il n’était pas jusqu’au placide Rétine qui, se souvenant brusquement du mess de Port-Louis où il passait pour savoir filer la romance, ne fredonnât un air badin de son époque pour Mme Vachette attendrie ou inquiétée : J’ai fait une escarpolette Là-bas au fond du jardin…

This word in other languages

mess(English)Messe(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • emss
  • mmess
  • mses

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mess - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

emss2mmess1mses2
Edit distance from "mess"

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 "mess"?
"mess" is spelled M-E-S-S. The IPA pronunciation is \mɛs\.
What does "mess" mean?
As a noun, "mess" means: Lieu où des officiers ou des sous-officiers prennent leurs repas ensemble.
What words are commonly confused with "mess"?
"mess" is commonly confused with "ms", "mis", "met". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "mess"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mess" is \mɛs\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mess" come from?
"mess" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "mess", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

mani#25,726Mack#25,725momo#25,739lira#25,721

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list