méfiervsMeyerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: méfier is a verb, Meyer is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“méfier” is a verb and “Meyer” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,910
“méfier” frequency rank
#14,086
“Meyer” frequency rank
24996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature méfier Meyer
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. Nom de famille allemand, répandu en Alsace et en Lorraine (surtout en Moselle), nom de famille néerlandais.

Letter map: méfier vs Meyer

Shared letters muted; letters that set méfier and Meyer apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

6 ch
méfier
5 ch
Meyer

Part-of-speech tell for méfier / Meyer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: méfier is averb and Meyeraname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24996, 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\. Meyer is at rank #14,086, tagged as aname.

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 24996, this pair ranks #343,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of méfier vs Meyer

Shared letters: emr. Private to "méfier": fié. Private to "Meyer": y.

"méfier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "Meyer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meyeremyer · meeyr · meyerr · meyre · meyyer · mmeyer · myeer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "méfier" and "Meyer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "méfier" is a verb and "Meyer" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "méfier" or "Meyer" show up more?
"méfier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,910 in our French list, against #14,086 for "Meyer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "méfier" and "Meyer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "méfier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Meyer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #343,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "méfier" and "Meyer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs Meyer". 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 #343,380 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