mentevsmuteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#941
“mente” frequency rank
#44,883
“mute” frequency rank
45824
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mente mute
Definition Entidad incorporea, inmaterial, supuesta sede de la imaginación, la conciencia, la reflexión, la intuición, la voluntad. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de mutar.

Where the eye mixes mente and mute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
mente
4 ch
mute

Visual trap between mente and mute

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mente is [ˈmẽn̪t̪e] while mute is [ˈmut̪e]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mente is recorded at frequency rank #941, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmẽn̪t̪e]. mute is at rank #44,883, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmut̪e].

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 45824, this pair ranks #129,249 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mente vs mute

Shared letters: emt. Private to "mente": n. Private to "mute": u.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • menteemnte · menet · mennte · mentte · metne · mmente · mnete
  • mutemmute · mtue · muet · mutte · umte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mente" and "mute" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mente" is a noun and "mute" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mente" vs "mute" - which ranks higher?
"mente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #941 in our Spanish list, against #44,883 for "mute". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,249 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mente" and "mute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mur vs mute". 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 #129,249 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