Which to use
“méfier” is a verb and “member” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,910
- “méfier” frequency rank
- #47,454
- “member” frequency rank
- 58364
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | méfier | member |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Membre (élément d’un groupe humain). |
Where the eye mixes méfier and member
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. méfier (CVCVVC) and member (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses méfier with member
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: méfier is \me.fje\ while member is \ˈmɛm.bɚ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58364, 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\. member is at rank #47,454, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmɛm.bɚ\.
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 58364, this pair ranks #109,470 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of méfier vs member
Shared letters: emr. Private to "méfier": fié. Private to "member": b.
"méfier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "member" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- member ← emmber · mebmer · membber · memberr · memebr · memmber · mmeber · mmember
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "méfier" for "member" ever safe?
Which is more common, "méfier" or "member"?
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 "méfier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "member" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #109,470 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "méfier" and "member" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs member". 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 #109,470 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.