Which to use
“mégot” and “merlot” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,389
- “mégot” frequency rank
- #35,153
- “merlot” frequency rank
- 75542
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mégot | merlot |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bout qui reste d’un cigare ou d’une cigarette quand on a fini de les fumer. | Cépage donnant des raisins sphériques d'un noir bleuté, cultivé entre autre dans le Bordelais, et dont le nom officiel international est merlot noir. |
Where the eye mixes mégot and merlot
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mégot runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against merlot's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mégot and merlot
A purely visual mix-up. mégot (\me.ɡo\) and merlot (\mɛʁ.lo\) 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 75542, 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\. merlot is at rank #35,153, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ.lo\.
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 75542, this pair ranks #33,753 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mégot vs merlot
Shared letters: mot. Private to "mégot": gé. Private to "merlot": elr.
"mégot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "merlot" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- merlot ← emrlot · melrot · merllot · merlott · merlto · merolt · merrlot · mmerlot
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mégot" and "merlot" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "mégot" or "merlot" show up more?
After this comparison
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 "merlot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,753 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mégot" and "merlot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mégot vs memo". 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 #33,753 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.