MeiervsMèreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,216
“Meier” frequency rank
#292
“Mère” frequency rank
49508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Meier Mère
Definition 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. Nom donné à la Vierge Marie.

Where the eye mixes Meier and Mère

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Meier
4 ch
Mère

Look-alike desk: Meier vs Mère

A purely visual mix-up. Meier (\maɪ̯ɐ\) and Mère (\mɛʁ\) 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 49508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Meier is recorded at frequency rank #49,216, classified as anoun, pronounced \maɪ̯ɐ\. Mère is at rank #292, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\.

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 49508, this pair ranks #170,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Meier vs Mère

Shared letters: emr. Private to "Meier": i. Private to "Mère": è.

"Meier" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "Mère" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meieremier · meeir · meierr · meire · mieer · mmeier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Meier" for "Mère" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\maɪ̯ɐ\ versus \mɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Meier" vs "Mère" - which ranks higher?
"Mère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #292 in our French list, against #49,216 for "Meier". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Meier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #170,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Meier" and "Mère" 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 #170,052 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