mentevsmoteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“mente” and “mote” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#941
“mente” frequency rank
#27,313
“mote” frequency rank
28254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mente mote
Definition Entidad incorporea, inmaterial, supuesta sede de la imaginación, la conciencia, la reflexión, la intuición, la voluntad. Sobrenombre que se le da a una persona, ya sea de forma despectiva o familiar, que deriva de una cualidad (atributo o defecto) física o psíquica, o una circunstancia.

Where the eye mixes mente and mote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mente runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against mote's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
mente
4 ch
mote

Visual trap between mente and mote

A purely visual mix-up. mente ([ˈmẽn̪t̪e]) and mote ([ˈmot̪e]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mente is recorded at frequency rank #941, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmẽn̪t̪e]. mote is at rank #27,313, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmot̪e].

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 28254, this pair ranks #222,921 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mente vs mote

Shared letters: emt. Private to "mente": n. Private to "mote": o.

"mente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • menteemnte · menet · mennte · mentte · metne · mmente · mnete
  • motemmote · moet · motte · mtoe · omte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mente" and "mote" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmẽn̪t̪e] versus [ˈmot̪e]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mente" or "mote"?
"mente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #941 in our Spanish list, against #27,313 for "mote". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "mente" and "mote" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #222,921 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mente" and "mote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "month vs mote". 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 #222,921 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