Easily Confused Words: Meringue Vs. Merengue - Kathleen W Curry

Meringue and merengue are easily confused words.

The spell-check application of most word processing software programs would not catch a slip-up of these two words. Spell-check is looking for words that aren’t in its dictionary, and words that resemble words in its dictionary, but are possibly spelled wrong. Spell-check isn’t perfect. It doesn’t know and can’t guess what word you wanted, or what word you meant, it can only judge the words on the page. If you used words that are all spelled correctly, it gives you a pass anyway.

Autocorrect suggests words that start with the same letters. It’s suggesting what word you may want to save time, but quite often, its suggestions are pretty off base. They don’t help you out, but they do make you laugh.

Meringue (pronounced US: “muh-rang”/FR: “MEE-rahng-uh”) is a noun.

• It can mean a foamy topping for pies or other desserts. It is created by whipping egg whites (aka albumen) with a dash of cream of tartar. When a recipe asks you to separate eggs, it means to remove the yolk from the egg white so one or both may be used separately in the recipe. For example, the yolk may go in the cake or pie, but the meringue goes in the topping.
• It can mean a baked foam treat made from whipped egg whites. It is mixed, piped into a swirl, then baked solid and eaten like a cookie.

In US popular culture, the Strawberry Shortcake dolls are all named for desserts. The character Lemon Meringue had blonde hair and a yellow dress.

Merengue (US:”muh-rang-gay”/DR:””mi-rang-gay”) is a noun.

• It can means a dance associated with Latino culture, specifically the Dominican Republic (the eastern half of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean.) Both the male and female dancers take small steps while sashaying their hips and slightly bending their knees. Their right hands are clasped together while their other hand (female’s) rests on their partners’ shoulder or (male’s) their partner’s back. Since it can be hard to imagine a dance based on a text description, here’s a video.
• It can mean the style of music played for people to perform this dance to.

The following story uses both words correctly:

Mercedes and Manuel took a break from their merengue practice with a snack. They enjoyed ginger beers and good luck meringue cookies from Mercedes’ Aunt Marisol.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MARCH 6, 2019. UPDATED OCTOBER 2021.

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