mat vs mês, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#21,805
“mat” frequency rank: #444
“mês” frequency rank: 22249
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	mat	mês
Definition	casamento	cada uma das doze partes em que se divide o ano

Where the eye mixes mat and mês

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

mat

3 ch

mês

Look-alike desk: mat vs mês

A purely visual mix-up. mat (/mat/) and mês (/ˈmeʃ/) 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 22249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mat is recorded at frequency rank #21,805, classified as anoun, pronounced /mat/. mês is at rank #444, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeʃ/.

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 22249, this pair ranks #47,852 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mat vs mês

Shared letters: m. Private to "mat": at. Private to "mês": sê.

"mat" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "mês" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mat" and "mês" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (/mat/ versus /ˈmeʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "mat" or "mês"?

"mês" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #444 in our Portuguese list, against #21,805 for "mat". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "mat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "mês" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #47,852 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"mat" and "mês" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mat". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #47,852 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.