méritée vs méritées, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#18,805
“méritée” frequency rank: #48,674
“méritées” frequency rank: 67479
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	méritée	méritées
Definition	Participe passé féminin singulier de mériter.	Participe passé féminin pluriel de mériter.

Same sound, different letters: méritée vs méritées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. méritée runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against méritées's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch

méritée

8 ch

méritées

Same sound, different spelling - méritée / méritées

This is the hard kind. méritée and méritées are pronounced identically (\me.ʁi.te\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “méritée” sits inside “méritées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

méritée is recorded at frequency rank #18,805, classified as averb, pronounced \me.ʁi.te\. méritées is at rank #48,674, 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 67479, this pair ranks #63,279 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of méritée vs méritées

Shared letters: eimrté. Private to "méritée": -. Private to "méritées": s.

"méritée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "méritées" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "méritée" and "méritées" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are pronounced the same (\me.ʁi.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "méritée" or "méritées"?

"méritée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,805 in our French list, against #48,674 for "méritées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

Full dictionary entry for "méritée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "méritées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #63,279 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"méritée" and "méritées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "méritées vs méritons". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #63,279 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.