Mère vs mle, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“Mère” and “mle” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#292
“Mère” frequency rank: #43,557
“mle” frequency rank: 43849
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Mère	mle
Definition	Nom donné à la Vierge Marie.	Abréviation de matricule.

Letter map: Mère vs mle

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mère and mle apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

Mère

3 ch

mle

Corpus notes: Mère and mle

Mère and mle are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43849, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mère is recorded at frequency rank #292, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\. mle is at rank #43,557, tagged as anoun.

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 43849, this pair ranks #214,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mère vs mle

Shared letters: em. Private to "Mère": rè. Private to "mle": l.

"Mère" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mle" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Mère" and "mle" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Frequency check: "Mère" vs "mle" - which ranks higher?

"Mère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #292 in our French list, against #43,557 for "mle". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "Mère" vs "mle" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "Mère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "mle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #214,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"Mère" and "mle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mle vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #214,914 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.