membrevsmeutreWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: membre is a noun, meutre is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“membre” is a noun and “meutre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,034
“membre” frequency rank
#48,664
“meutre” frequency rank
49698
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature membre meutre
Definition Partie extérieure du corps d’un être humain ou d’un animal, distinguée de toutes les autres par quelque fonction particulière. Note d’usage : Se dit principalement des bras et des jambes ; ne se dit jamais de la tête. Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de meutern.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set membre and meutre apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
membre
6 ch
meutre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: membre is \mɑ̃bʁ\ while meutre is \ˈmɔɪ̯tʁə\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49698, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

membre is recorded at frequency rank #1,034, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃bʁ\. meutre is at rank #48,664, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈmɔɪ̯tʁə\.

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 49698, this pair ranks #168,548 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of membre vs meutre

Shared letters: emr. Private to "membre": b. Private to "meutre": tu.

"membre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "meutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • membreemmbre · mebmre · membbre · membrre · memmbre · memrbe · mmebre · mmembre
  • meutreemutre · meture · meurte · meuter · meuttre · mmeutre · muetre

Frequency comparison

membre#1,034
meutre#48,664

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "membre" and "meutre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "membre" is a noun and "meutre" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "membre" or "meutre"?
"membre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,034 in our French list, against #48,664 for "meutre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering membre vs meutre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “membre”; for a verb, it's “meutre”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “membre” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list