Which to use
“mèche” and “merde” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,096
- “mèche” frequency rank
- #481
- “merde” frequency rank
- 14577
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mèche | merde |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Assemblage de fils de coton, de chanvre, etc., qu’on utilise pour l’éclairage dans les lampes à huile, à pétrole, à essence, etc. | Excrément de personne ou d’animal. |
Where the eye mixes mèche and merde
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mèche and merde follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between mèche and merde
A purely visual mix-up. mèche (\mɛʃ\) and merde (\mɛʁd\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14577, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mèche is recorded at frequency rank #14,096, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʃ\. merde is at rank #481, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁd\.
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 14577, this pair ranks #396,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mèche vs merde
Shared letters: em. Private to "mèche": chè. Private to "merde": dr.
"mèche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "merde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- merde ← emrde · medre · merdde · mered · merrde · mmerde · mrede
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mèche" for "merde" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "mèche" or "merde" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mèche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mèche" and "merde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mèche vs meuh". 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 #396,071 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.