mechavsmeiaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#24,075
“mecha” frequency rank
#1,054
“meia” frequency rank
25129
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mecha meia
Definition porção de cabelos ou pelos peça de vestuário de tecido de malha que se calça sobre a pele até meio da perna

Where the eye mixes mecha and meia

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
mecha
4 ch
meia

Look-alike desk: mecha vs meia

A purely visual mix-up. mecha (/ˈmɛ.ʃɐ/) and meia (/ˈmɐj.ɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25129, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mecha is recorded at frequency rank #24,075, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛ.ʃɐ/. meia is at rank #1,054, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɐj.ɐ/.

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 25129, this pair ranks #44,254 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mecha vs meia

Shared letters: aem. Private to "mecha": ch. Private to "meia": i.

"mecha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "meia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mechaemcha · mceha · mecah · meccha · mechha · mehca · mmecha
  • meiaemia · meai · miea · mmeia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mecha" for "meia" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɛ.ʃɐ/ versus /ˈmɐj.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mecha" or "meia"?
"meia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,054 in our Portuguese list, against #24,075 for "mecha". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "mecha" and "meia" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mecha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,254 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mecha" and "meia" 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 #44,254 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