Which to use
“mêlée” and “merde” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,703
- “mêlée” frequency rank
- #481
- “merde” frequency rank
- 10184
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mêlée | merde |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Combat opiniâtre, où deux troupes s’attaquent corps-à-corps et se mêlent. | Excrément de personne ou d’animal. |
Where the eye mixes mêlée and merde
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mêlée and merde
A purely visual mix-up. mêlée (\me.le\) and merde (\mɛʁd\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mêlée is recorded at frequency rank #9,703, classified as anoun, pronounced \me.le\. merde is at rank #481, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁd\.
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 10184, this pair ranks #413,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mêlée vs merde
Shared letters: em. Private to "mêlée": léê. Private to "merde": dr.
"mêlée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "merde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- merde ← emrde · medre · merdde · mered · merrde · mmerde · mrede
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mêlée" and "merde" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "mêlée" vs "merde" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mêlée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #413,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mêlée" and "merde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs mêlée". 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 #413,912 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.