manívsmenoTell them apart

Quick tell: maní is a noun, meno is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maní” is a noun and “meno” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,309
“maní” frequency rank
#28,071
“meno” frequency rank
46380
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maní meno
Definition (Arachis hypogaea) Planta anual de la familia de las fabáceas, orginaria de América. Tiene hojas pinnadas con dos pares de folíolos oblongos, y flores amarillas con un cáliz tubular, cuyo ovario se desplaza al ser fertilizadas hasta enterrarse en el suelo. Los frutos son vainas que crecen y maduran bajo tierra. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de menar.

Where the eye mixes maní and meno

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. maní and meno follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
maní
4 ch
meno

Look-alike desk: maní vs meno

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maní is [maˈni] while meno is [ˈmeno]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46380, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maní is recorded at frequency rank #18,309, classified as anoun, pronounced [maˈni]. meno is at rank #28,071, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmeno].

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 46380, this pair ranks #126,059 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maní vs meno

Shared letters: mn. Private to "maní": . Private to "meno": eo.

"maní" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "meno" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • menoemno · menno · meon · mmeno · mneo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maní" and "meno" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maní" is a noun and "meno" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "maní" or "meno" show up more?
"maní" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,309 in our Spanish list, against #28,071 for "meno". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maní" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meno" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #126,059 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maní" and "meno" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meno vs minor". 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 #126,059 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list