Which to use
“merde” and “monde” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #481
- “merde” frequency rank
- #102
- “monde” frequency rank
- 583
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | merde | monde |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Excrément de personne ou d’animal. | Ensemble des choses et des êtres existants. |
Where the eye mixes merde and monde
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: merde vs monde
A purely visual mix-up. merde (\mɛʁd\) and monde (\mɔ̃d\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 583, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
merde is recorded at frequency rank #481, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁd\. monde is at rank #102, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ̃d\.
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 583, this pair ranks #439,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of merde vs monde
Shared letters: dem. Private to "merde": r. Private to "monde": no.
"merde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "monde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "merde" for "monde" ever safe?
Frequency check: "merde" vs "monde" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "merde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "monde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #439,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "merde" and "monde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "monde vs Monza". 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 #439,430 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.