mayo vs medo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“mayo” is a noun and “medo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,251
“mayo” frequency rank: #379
“medo” frequency rank: 30630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	mayo	medo
Definition	maio	que pertence ou se refere à Média

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set mayo and medo apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

mayo

4 ch

medo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mayo is /ˈma.ʝo/ while medo is AFI: /'me.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mayo is recorded at frequency rank #30,251, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.ʝo/. medo is at rank #379, tagged as anadj, pronounced AFI: /'me.du/.

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 30630, this pair ranks #37,673 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mayo vs medo

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mayo": ay. Private to "medo": de.

"mayo" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "medo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

mayo ← amyo · maoy · mayyo · mmayo · myao
medo ← emdo · mdeo · meddo · meod · mmedo

Frequency comparison

mayo#30,251

medo#379

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mayo" and "medo" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mayo" is a noun and "medo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "mayo" or "medo"?

"medo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #379 in our Portuguese list, against #30,251 for "mayo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering mayo vs medo

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “mayo”; for an adjective, it's “medo”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “mayo” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable