Which to use
“matéria” is a noun and “material” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,248
- “matéria” frequency rank
- #1,120
- “material” frequency rank
- 2368
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | matéria | material |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | qualquer substância, sólida, líquida ou gasosa, que ocupa lugar no espaço | relativo à matéria |
Where the eye mixes matéria and material
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. matéria runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against material's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: matéria vs material
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: matéria is /mɐ.ˈtɛ.ɾjɐ/ while material is /ma.te.ɾi.ˈaw/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
matéria is recorded at frequency rank #1,248, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈtɛ.ɾjɐ/. material is at rank #1,120, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ma.te.ɾi.ˈaw/.
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 2368, this pair ranks #73,045 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of matéria vs material
Shared letters: aimrt. Private to "matéria": é. Private to "material": el.
"matéria" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "material" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- material ← amterial · maetrial · mateiral · materail · materiall · materila · materrial · matreial
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "matéria" for "material" ever safe?
Which is more common, "matéria" or "material"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "matéria" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "material" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #73,045 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "matéria" and "material" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mater vs matéria". 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 #73,045 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.