Which to use
“merde” and “mode” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #481
- “merde” frequency rank
- #585
- “mode” frequency rank
- 1066
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | merde | mode |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Excrément de personne ou d’animal. | Manière de voir ou d’agir ; fantaisie. |
Where the eye mixes merde and mode
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: merde vs mode
A purely visual mix-up. merde (\mɛʁd\) and mode (\mɔd\) 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 1066, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
merde is recorded at frequency rank #481, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁd\. mode is at rank #585, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔd\.
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 1066, this pair ranks #438,683 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of merde vs mode
Shared letters: dem. Private to "merde": r. Private to "mode": o.
"merde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mode" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "merde" and "mode" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "merde" or "mode"?
What to do next
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 "mode" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,683 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "merde" and "mode" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mode vs mud". 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 #438,683 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.