mégotvsmemoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“mégot” and “memo” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,389
“mégot” frequency rank
#49,793
“memo” frequency rank
90182
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mégot memo
Definition Bout qui reste d’un cigare ou d’une cigarette quand on a fini de les fumer. Mémo, aide-mémoire.

Where the eye mixes mégot and memo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mégot runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against memo's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
mégot
4 ch
memo

Visual trap between mégot and memo

A purely visual mix-up. mégot (\me.ɡo\) and memo (\ˈmɛm.əʊ̯\) 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 90182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mégot is recorded at frequency rank #40,389, classified as anoun, pronounced \me.ɡo\. memo is at rank #49,793, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmɛm.əʊ̯\.

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 90182, this pair ranks #5,056 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mégot vs memo

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mégot": gté. Private to "memo": e.

"mégot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "memo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • memo ← emmo · memmo · meom · mmemo · mmeo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mégot" and "memo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\me.ɡo\ versus \ˈmɛm.əʊ̯\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mégot" vs "memo" - which ranks higher?
"mégot" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,389 in our French list, against #49,793 for "memo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mégot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "memo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,056 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mégot" and "memo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "memo vs mito". 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 #5,056 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