Which to use
“méfier” is a verb and “Meier” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,910
- “méfier” frequency rank
- #49,216
- “Meier” frequency rank
- 60126
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | méfier | Meier |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ne pas se fier à quelqu’un, à ce qu’il dit, à ce qu’il fait paraître, parce qu’on le soupçonne de ne pas être sincère ni sûr. | Métayer, à l'origine, fonctionnaire d'un propriétaire noble ou ecclésiastique qui avait en charge l'administration et la gestion de la ferme principale. Plus tard, locataire d'une grande exploitation agricole. majordome. |
Where the eye mixes méfier and Meier
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. méfier runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against Meier's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between méfier and Meier
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: méfier is \me.fje\ while Meier is \maɪ̯ɐ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60126, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
méfier is recorded at frequency rank #10,910, classified as averb, pronounced \me.fje\. Meier is at rank #49,216, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maɪ̯ɐ\.
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 60126, this pair ranks #99,323 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of méfier vs Meier
Shared letters: eimr. Private to "méfier": fé. Private to "Meier": -.
"méfier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "Meier" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Meier ← emier · meeir · meierr · meire · mieer · mmeier
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "méfier" and "Meier" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "méfier" or "Meier" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "méfier" and "Meier" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "méfier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Meier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #99,323 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "méfier" and "Meier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs muer". 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 #99,323 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.