mantervsmeterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#650
“manter” frequency rank
#3,705
“meter” frequency rank
4355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manter meter
Definition sustentar introduzir; fazer entrar

Where the eye mixes manter and meter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
manter
5 ch
meter

Why the eye confuses manter with meter

A purely visual mix-up. manter (/mɐ̃.ˈteɾ/) and meter (/mɨ.ˈteɾ/) 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 4355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manter is recorded at frequency rank #650, classified as averb, pronounced /mɐ̃.ˈteɾ/. meter is at rank #3,705, tagged as averb, pronounced /mɨ.ˈteɾ/.

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 4355, this pair ranks #70,584 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manter vs meter

Shared letters: emrt. Private to "manter": an. Private to "meter": -.

"manter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "meter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manteramnter · manetr · mannter · manterr · mantre · mantter · matner · mmanter
  • meteremter · meetr · meterr · metre · metter · mmeter · mteer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "manter" for "meter" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/mɐ̃.ˈteɾ/ versus /mɨ.ˈteɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manter" or "meter"?
"manter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #650 in our Portuguese list, against #3,705 for "meter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "manter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,584 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manter" and "meter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Messer vs meter". 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 #70,584 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