mecvsmechaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mec is a adjective, mecha is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#8,225
“mec” frequency rank
#24,075
“mecha” frequency rank
32300
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mec mecha
Definition tranquilo porção de cabelos ou pelos

Letter map: mec vs mecha

Shared letters muted; letters that set mec and mecha apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
mec
5 ch
mecha

Part-of-speech tell for mec / mecha

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mec is anadjective and mechaanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “mec” sits inside “mecha”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32300, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mec is recorded at frequency rank #8,225, classified as anadj. mecha is at rank #24,075, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛ.ʃɐ/.

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 32300, this pair ranks #35,541 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mec vs mecha

Shared letters: cem. Private to "mec": -. Private to "mecha": ah.

"mec" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mecha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mechaemcha · mceha · mecah · meccha · mechha · mehca · mmecha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mec" for "mecha" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mec" is an adjective and "mecha" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mec" vs "mecha" - which ranks higher?
"mec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,225 in our Portuguese list, against #24,075 for "mecha". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mec" and "mecha".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mecha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,541 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mec" and "mecha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mecha vs mesh". 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 #35,541 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