mendvsMendesConfusable pair

Quick tell: mend is a verb, Mendes is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mend” is a verb and “Mendes” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,888
“mend” frequency rank
#21,863
“Mendes” frequency rank
40751
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mend Mendes
Definition To physically repair (something that is broken, defaced, decayed, torn, or otherwise damaged). An ancient Egyptian city, the modern Tell El-Ruba.

Letter map: mend vs Mendes

Shared letters muted; letters that set mend and Mendes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. mend runs 4 letters (CVCC) against Mendes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mend
6 ch
Mendes

Role in the sentence - mend and Mendes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mend is averb and Mendesaname. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “mend” sits inside “Mendes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40751, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mend is recorded at frequency rank #18,888, classified as averb, pronounced /mɛnd/. Mendes is at rank #21,863, tagged as aname.

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 40751, this pair ranks #264,714 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mend vs Mendes

Shared letters: demn. Private to "mend": -. Private to "Mendes": s.

"mend" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Mendes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mend ← emnd · medn · mendd · mennd · mmend · mned
  • Mendes ← emndes · mednes · menddes · mendess · mendse · meneds · menndes · mmendes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mend" for "Mendes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mend" is a verb and "Mendes" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mend" vs "Mendes" - which ranks higher?
"mend" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,888 in our English list, against #21,863 for "Mendes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "mend" and "Mendes". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mendes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #264,714 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mend" and "Mendes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mela vs mend". 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 #264,714 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list