matervsmexerWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#31,868
“mater” frequency rank
#3,498
“mexer” frequency rank
35366
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mater mexer
Definition maternidade, estabelecimento público ou privado destinado a receber mulheres que estão a ponto de dar a luz misturar, agitar, revolver

Letter map: mater vs mexer

Shared letters muted; letters that set mater and mexer apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. mater and mexer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
mater
5 ch
mexer

Role in the sentence - mater and mexer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mater is anoun and mexeraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mater is recorded at frequency rank #31,868, classified as anoun, pronounced /ma.tɛʁ/. mexer is at rank #3,498, tagged as averb.

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 35366, this pair ranks #31,687 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mater vs mexer

Shared letters: emr. Private to "mater": at. Private to "mexer": x.

"mater" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mexer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mater ← amter · maetr · materr · mmater · mtaer
  • mexer ← emxer · meexr · mexerr · mexre · mexxer · mmexer · mxeer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mater" for "mexer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mater" is a noun and "mexer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mater" vs "mexer" - which ranks higher?
"mexer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,498 in our Portuguese list, against #31,868 for "mater". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "mater" and "mexer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mater" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mexer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,687 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mater" and "mexer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mater vs matiz". 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 #31,687 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