Which to use
“méduse” and “mesure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,098
- “méduse” frequency rank
- #520
- “mesure” frequency rank
- 26618
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | méduse | mesure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne laide et repoussante. | Dimension. |
Where the eye mixes méduse and mesure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. méduse and mesure follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between méduse and mesure
A purely visual mix-up. méduse (\me.dyz\) and mesure (\mə.zyʁ\) 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 26618, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
méduse is recorded at frequency rank #26,098, classified as anoun, pronounced \me.dyz\. mesure is at rank #520, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mə.zyʁ\.
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 26618, this pair ranks #333,859 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of méduse vs mesure
Shared letters: emsu. Private to "méduse": dé. Private to "mesure": r.
"méduse" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "mesure" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mesure ← emsure · mesrue · messure · mesuer · mesurre · meusre · mmesure · mseure
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "méduse" and "mesure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "méduse" or "mesure"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "méduse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mesure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #333,859 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "méduse" and "mesure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "méduse vs meneuse". 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 #333,859 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.