médiavsmedulaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#993
“média” frequency rank
#13,129
“medula” frequency rank
14122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature média medula
Definition valor intermediário substância mole contida no interior dos ossos

Letter map: média vs medula

Shared letters muted; letters that set média and medula apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. média runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against medula's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
média
6 ch
medula

Corpus notes: média and medula

média and medula are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

média is recorded at frequency rank #993, classified as anoun. medula is at rank #13,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɨ.ˈdu.lɐ/.

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 14122, this pair ranks #58,050 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of média vs medula

Shared letters: adm. Private to "média": ié. Private to "medula": elu.

"média" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "medula" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • medula ← emdula · mdeula · meddula · medlua · medual · medulla · meudla · mmedula

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "média" for "medula" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "média" or "medula" show up more?
"média" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #993 in our Portuguese list, against #13,129 for "medula". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "média" and "medula".

  • Full dictionary entry for "média" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "medula" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,050 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "média" and "medula" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "média vs mein". 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 #58,050 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