mêlésvsMèreConfusable pair

Quick tell: mêlés is a adjective, Mère is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mêlés” is an adjective and “Mère” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,299
“mêlés” frequency rank
#292
“Mère” frequency rank
24591
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mêlés Mère
Definition Masculin pluriel de mêlé. Nom donné à la Vierge Marie.

Where the eye mixes mêlés and Mère

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

5 ch
mêlés
4 ch
Mère

Visual trap between mêlés and Mère

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mêlés is \me.le\ while Mère is \mɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24591, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mêlés is recorded at frequency rank #24,299, classified as anadj, pronounced \me.le\. 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 24591, this pair ranks #345,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mêlés vs Mère

Shared letters: m. Private to "mêlés": lséê. Private to "Mère": erè.

"mêlés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Mère" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mêlés" and "Mère" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mêlés" is an adjective and "Mère" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mêlés" or "Mère"?
"Mère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #292 in our French list, against #24,299 for "mêlés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "mêlés" and "Mère" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mêlés" 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 #345,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mêlés" and "Mère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs mêlés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #345,735 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