mediaçãovsmedicaçãoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#12,939
“mediação” frequency rank
#11,914
“medicação” frequency rank
24853
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mediação medicação
Definition ato ou efeito de agir como mediador, resolvendo uma contenda utilização dos remédios ou de outros procedimentos curativos, tendo em conta uma indicação ou orientação especializada

Where the eye mixes mediação and medicação

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. mediação runs 8 letters (CVCVVCVV) against medicação's 9 (CVCVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
mediação
9 ch
medicação

Visual trap between mediação and medicação

A purely visual mix-up. mediação (/me.ʤɪ.ɐ.ˈsãw/, /me.ʤɐ.ˈsãw/) and medicação (/mɨ.di.kɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 24853, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mediação is recorded at frequency rank #12,939, classified as anoun, pronounced /me.ʤɪ.ɐ.ˈsãw/, /me.ʤɐ.ˈsãw/. medicação is at rank #11,914, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɨ.di.kɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 24853, this pair ranks #44,620 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mediação vs medicação

Shared letters: adeimoãç. Private to "mediação": -. Private to "medicação": c.

"mediação" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVV  ·  "medicação" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mediação" for "medicação" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/me.ʤɪ.ɐ.ˈsãw/, /me.ʤɐ.ˈsãw/ versus /mɨ.di.kɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mediação" or "medicação"?
"medicação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,914 in our Portuguese list, against #12,939 for "mediação". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mediação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "medicação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,620 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mediação" and "medicação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mediação vs mediano". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #44,620 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