mecvsMecqueConfusable pair

Quick tell: mec is a noun, Mecque is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mec” is a noun and “Mecque” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#519
“mec” frequency rank
#16,415
“Mecque” frequency rank
16934
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mec Mecque
Definition Individu de sexe ou genre masculin. Centre de rayonnement d'un art ou d'une science.

Same sound, different letters: mec vs Mecque

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.

3 ch
mec
6 ch
Mecque

Same sound, different spelling - mec / Mecque

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: mec and Mecque carry the same recorded pronunciation, \mɛk\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other aname, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 3 extra letter(s) - “mec” sits inside “Mecque”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mec is recorded at frequency rank #519, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛk\. Mecque is at rank #16,415, tagged as aname, pronounced \mɛk\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 16934, this pair ranks #385,562 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mec vs Mecque

Shared letters: cem. Private to "mec": -. Private to "Mecque": qu.

"mec" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Mecque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mecqueemcque · mceque · meccque · mecqeu · mecqque · mecuqe · meqcue · mmecque

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mec" and "Mecque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mec" is a noun and "Mecque" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mec" vs "Mecque" - which ranks higher?
"mec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #519 in our French list, against #16,415 for "Mecque". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

"mec" and "Mecque" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mecque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #385,562 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mec" and "Mecque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mec vs MWh". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #385,562 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list