Which to use
“merde” and “mères” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #481
- “merde” frequency rank
- #4,253
- “mères” frequency rank
- 4734
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | merde | mères |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Excrément de personne ou d’animal. | Pluriel de mère. |
Where the eye mixes merde and mères
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between merde and mères
A purely visual mix-up. merde (\mɛʁd\) and mères (\mɛʁ\) 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 4734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
merde is recorded at frequency rank #481, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁd\. mères is at rank #4,253, 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 4734, this pair ranks #430,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of merde vs mères
Shared letters: emr. Private to "merde": d. Private to "mères": sè.
"merde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mères" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- merde ← emrde · medre · merdde · mered · merrde · mmerde · mrede
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "merde" and "mères" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "merde" vs "mères" - which ranks higher?
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 "merde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #430,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "merde" and "mères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs mères". 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 #430,839 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.