Which to use
“Melle” and “Mère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,602
- “Melle” frequency rank
- #292
- “Mère” frequency rank
- 31894
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Melle | Mère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante orthographique de Mˡˡᵉ. | Nom donné à la Vierge Marie. |
Where the eye mixes Melle and Mère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: Melle vs Mère
A purely visual mix-up. Melle (\mad.mwa.zɛl\) 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 31894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Melle is recorded at frequency rank #31,602, classified as anoun, pronounced \mad.mwa.zɛl\. 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 31894, this pair ranks #300,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Melle vs Mère
Shared letters: em. Private to "Melle": l. Private to "Mère": rè.
"Melle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "Mère" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- Melle ← emlle · melel · mlele · mmelle
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Melle" for "Mère" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Melle" or "Mère"?
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 "Melle" 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 #300,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Melle" and "Mère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Melle vs Milla". 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 #300,890 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.