Which to use
“mettes” and “meules” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,626
- “mettes” frequency rank
- #32,908
- “meules” frequency rank
- 67534
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mettes | meules |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mette. | Pluriel de meule. |
Where the eye mixes mettes and meules
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mettes (CVCCVC) and meules (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses mettes with meules
A purely visual mix-up. mettes (\mɛt\) and meules (\møl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mettes is recorded at frequency rank #34,626, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛt\. meules is at rank #32,908, tagged as anoun, pronounced \møl\.
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 67534, this pair ranks #63,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mettes vs meules
Shared letters: ems. Private to "mettes": t. Private to "meules": lu.
"mettes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "meules" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mettes" for "meules" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mettes" vs "meules" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mettes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "meules" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mettes" and "meules" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mettes vs muettes". 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 #63,000 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.