Which to use
“mettre” is a verb and “meurtre” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #227
- “mettre” frequency rank
- #2,484
- “meurtre” frequency rank
- 2711
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mettre | meurtre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Placer une personne, ou un animal, ou une chose dans un lieu déterminé. | Homicide volontaire. |
Where the eye mixes mettre and meurtre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mettre runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against meurtre's 7 (CVVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses mettre with meurtre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mettre is \mɛtʁ\ while meurtre is \mœʁtʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mettre is recorded at frequency rank #227, classified as averb, pronounced \mɛtʁ\. meurtre is at rank #2,484, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mœʁtʁ\.
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 2711, this pair ranks #435,622 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mettre vs meurtre
Shared letters: emrt. Private to "mettre": -. Private to "meurtre": u.
"mettre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "meurtre" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mettre" and "meurtre" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "mettre" or "meurtre" 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 "mettre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "meurtre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #435,622 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mettre" and "meurtre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meurtre vs meutre". 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 #435,622 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.