Which to use
“mèches” and “merdes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,508
- “mèches” frequency rank
- #10,359
- “merdes” frequency rank
- 30867
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mèches | merdes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mèche. | Pluriel de merde. |
Where the eye mixes mèches and merdes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mèches and merdes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: mèches vs merdes
A purely visual mix-up. mèches (\mɛʃ\) and merdes (\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 30867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mèches is recorded at frequency rank #20,508, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʃ\. merdes is at rank #10,359, 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 30867, this pair ranks #307,497 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mèches vs merdes
Shared letters: ems. Private to "mèches": chè. Private to "merdes": dr.
"mèches" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "merdes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- merdes ← emrdes · medres · merddes · merdess · merdse · mereds · merrdes · mmerdes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mèches" and "merdes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "mèches" or "merdes"?
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 "mèches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merdes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #307,497 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mèches" and "merdes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mercis vs merdes". 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 #307,497 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.