Which to use
“Mère” and “morue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #292
- “Mère” frequency rank
- #22,338
- “morue” frequency rank
- 22630
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Mère | morue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom donné à la Vierge Marie. | Poisson de mer du genre Gadus. |
Where the eye mixes Mère and morue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Mère with morue
A purely visual mix-up. Mère (\mɛʁ\) and morue (\mɔ.ʁy\) 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 22630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Mère is recorded at frequency rank #292, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\. morue is at rank #22,338, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.ʁy\.
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 22630, this pair ranks #356,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Mère vs morue
Shared letters: emr. Private to "Mère": è. Private to "morue": ou.
"Mère" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "morue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- morue ← mmorue · moreu · morrue · moure · mroue · omrue
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Mère" for "morue" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "Mère" or "morue" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Mère" and "morue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Mère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "morue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #356,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Mère" and "morue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moquée vs morue". 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 #356,943 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.