mesuresvsmeureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,066
“mesures” frequency rank
#22,941
“meure” frequency rank
24007
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mesures meure
Definition Pluriel de mesure. Graphie ancienne de mûre.

Where the eye mixes mesures and meure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mesures runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against meure's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
mesures
5 ch
meure

Why the eye confuses mesures with meure

A purely visual mix-up. mesures (\mə.zyʁ\) and meure (\mœʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mesures is recorded at frequency rank #1,066, classified as anoun, pronounced \mə.zyʁ\. meure is at rank #22,941, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mœʁ\.

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 24007, this pair ranks #349,206 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mesures vs meure

Shared letters: emru. Private to "mesures": s. Private to "meure": -.

"mesures" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "meure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mesures ← emsures · mesrues · messures · mesuers · mesuress · mesurres · mesurse · meusres
  • meure ← emure · merue · meuer · meurre · mmeure · muere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mesures" for "meure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mə.zyʁ\ versus \mœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mesures" or "meure"?
"mesures" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,066 in our French list, against #22,941 for "meure". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "mesures" and "meure" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mesures" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #349,206 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mesures" and "meure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Méry vs meure". 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 #349,206 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list