Which to use
“medley” and “mêlée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,451
- “medley” frequency rank
- #9,703
- “mêlée” frequency rank
- 57154
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | medley | mêlée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Course en individuel ou en équipe où quatre différents styles de nage (papillon, dos, brasse et nage libre) sont utilisés | Combat opiniâtre, où deux troupes s’attaquent corps-à-corps et se mêlent. |
Where the eye mixes medley and mêlée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. medley runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against mêlée's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses medley with mêlée
A purely visual mix-up. medley (\mɛd.le\) and mêlée (\me.le\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
medley is recorded at frequency rank #47,451, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛd.le\. mêlée is at rank #9,703, tagged as anoun, pronounced \me.le\.
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 57154, this pair ranks #116,719 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of medley vs mêlée
Shared letters: elm. Private to "medley": dy. Private to "mêlée": éê.
"medley" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "mêlée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- medley ← emdley · mdeley · meddley · medely · medleyy · medlley · medlye · meldey
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "medley" for "mêlée" ever safe?
Frequency check: "medley" vs "mêlée" - which ranks higher?
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 "medley" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mêlée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #116,719 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "medley" and "mêlée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Médée vs medley". 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 #116,719 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.