maltevsmenteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#30,244
“malte” frequency rank
#990
“mente” frequency rank
31234
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malte mente
Definition produto que resulta da germinação artificial e posterior dessecação de cereais conjunto das ideias e convicções de uma pessoa; o resultado do trabalho cerebral de uma pessoal, intangível mas perceptível em sua forma de raciocinar

Where the eye mixes malte and mente

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

5 ch
malte
5 ch
mente

Why the eye confuses malte with mente

A purely visual mix-up. malte (/ˈmaɫ.tɨ/) and mente (/ˈmẽ.t͡ʃi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31234, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malte is recorded at frequency rank #30,244, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɫ.tɨ/. mente is at rank #990, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmẽ.t͡ʃi/.

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 31234, this pair ranks #36,915 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of malte vs mente

Shared letters: emt. Private to "malte": al. Private to "mente": n.

"malte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malteamlte · malet · mallte · maltte · matle · mlate · mmalte
  • menteemnte · menet · mennte · mentte · metne · mmente · mnete

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "malte" for "mente" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmaɫ.tɨ/ versus /ˈmẽ.t͡ʃi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "malte" or "mente"?
"mente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #990 in our Portuguese list, against #30,244 for "malte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,915 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malte" and "mente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malte vs malva". 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 #36,915 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list