Which to use
“merle” is an adjective and “merlin” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,940
- “merle” frequency rank
- #11,438
- “merlin” frequency rank
- 34378
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | merle | merlin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Type de coloration de pelage chez le chien. Une robe merle est sombre avec des taches claires peu distinctes qui peuvent être associées à d’autres motifs comme certaines dilutions (couleurs foie) ou une couleur bringée. | Long marteau dont les bouchers se servent pour assommer les bœufs. |
Where the eye mixes merle and merlin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. merle runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against merlin's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses merle with merlin
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: merle is \mɛʁl\ while merlin is \mɛʁ.lɛ̃\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
merle is recorded at frequency rank #22,940, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛʁl\. merlin is at rank #11,438, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ.lɛ̃\.
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 34378, this pair ranks #284,249 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of merle vs merlin
Shared letters: elmr. Private to "merle": -. Private to "merlin": in.
"merle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "merlin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "merle" for "merlin" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "merle" or "merlin" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "merle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merlin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #284,249 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "merle" and "merlin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "merle vs Méry". 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 #284,249 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.