Which to use
“mérite” is a noun and “méritée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,395
- “mérite” frequency rank
- #18,805
- “méritée” frequency rank
- 20200
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mérite | méritée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qui rend une personne digne d’estime. | Participe passé féminin singulier de mériter. |
Where the eye mixes mérite and méritée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. mérite runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against méritée's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: mérite vs méritée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mérite is \me.ʁit\ while méritée is \me.ʁi.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mérite is recorded at frequency rank #1,395, classified as anoun, pronounced \me.ʁit\. méritée is at rank #18,805, tagged as averb, pronounced \me.ʁi.te\.
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 20200, this pair ranks #369,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mérite vs méritée
Shared letters: eimrté. Private to "mérite": -. Private to "méritée": -.
"mérite" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "méritée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mérite" and "méritée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "mérite" or "méritée" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mérite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "méritée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #369,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mérite" and "méritée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "méritée vs méritées". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #369,478 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.