MecquevsmecsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#16,415
“Mecque” frequency rank
#1,630
“mecs” frequency rank
18045
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mecque mecs
Definition Centre de rayonnement d'un art ou d'une science. Pluriel de mec.

Same sound, different letters: Mecque vs mecs

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

6 ch
Mecque
4 ch
mecs

Ear matches; page differs - Mecque and mecs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: Mecque and mecs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \mɛk\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is aname, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18045, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mecque is recorded at frequency rank #16,415, classified as aname, pronounced \mɛk\. mecs is at rank #1,630, tagged as anoun, 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 18045, this pair ranks #380,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mecque vs mecs

Shared letters: cem. Private to "Mecque": qu. Private to "mecs": s.

"Mecque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "mecs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mecqueemcque · mceque · meccque · mecqeu · mecqque · mecuqe · meqcue · mmecque
  • mecsemcs · mces · meccs · mecss · mesc · mmecs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mecque" and "mecs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mecque" is a name and "mecs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Mecque" or "mecs" show up more?
"mecs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,630 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.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "Mecque" / "mecs". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mecque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mecs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mecque" and "mecs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mecs vs memo". 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 #380,261 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