Which to use
“merdes” and “Mère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,359
- “merdes” frequency rank
- #292
- “Mère” frequency rank
- 10651
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | merdes | Mère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de merde. | Nom donné à la Vierge Marie. |
Where the eye mixes merdes and Mère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: merdes vs Mère
A purely visual mix-up. merdes (\mɛʁd\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10651, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
merdes is recorded at frequency rank #10,359, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁd\. 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 10651, this pair ranks #412,165 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of merdes vs Mère
Shared letters: emr. Private to "merdes": ds. Private to "Mère": è.
"merdes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "Mère" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- merdes ← emrdes · medres · merddes · merdess · merdse · mereds · merrdes · mmerdes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "merdes" and "Mère" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "merdes" or "Mère"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "merdes" and "Mère" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "merdes" 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 #412,165 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "merdes" and "Mère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mercis vs merdes". 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 #412,165 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.