Which to use
“mer” and “mercy” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,090
- “mer” frequency rank
- #16,818
- “mercy” frequency rank
- 38908
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mer | mercy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | mar | misericórdia |
Where the eye mixes mer and mercy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mer runs 3 letters (CVC) against mercy's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: mer vs mercy
A purely visual mix-up. mer (/mɛʁ/) and mercy (/ˈmɜrsi/) 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 extra letter(s) - “mer” sits inside “mercy”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38908, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mer is recorded at frequency rank #22,090, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɛʁ/. mercy is at rank #16,818, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɜrsi/.
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 38908, this pair ranks #27,466 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mer vs mercy
Shared letters: emr. Private to "mer": -. Private to "mercy": cy.
"mer" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "mercy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mercy ← emrcy · mecry · merccy · mercyy · merrcy · meryc · mmercy · mrecy
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mer" for "mercy" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mer" or "mercy"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mer" and "mercy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mercy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #27,466 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mer" and "mercy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mer". 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 #27,466 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.