medicina vs medicine, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#1,854
“medicina” frequency rank: #21,513
“medicine” frequency rank: 23367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	medicina	medicine
Definition	ciência que tem como objetivo a conservação e o restabelecimento da saúde, que pretende curar e prevenir as doenças dos seres humanos; técnica de tratar e combater doenças	medicina

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set medicina and medicine apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch

medicina

8 ch

medicine

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. medicina (/me.dʒi.ˈsi.nə/) and medicine (/ˈmɛ.də.sɪn/, /ˈmɛ.ɾə.sɪn/) 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 a single letter - a in “medicina” becomes e in “medicine”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

medicina is recorded at frequency rank #1,854, classified as anoun, pronounced /me.dʒi.ˈsi.nə/. medicine is at rank #21,513, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛ.də.sɪn/, /ˈmɛ.ɾə.sɪn/.

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 23367, this pair ranks #46,465 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of medicina vs medicine

Shared letters: cdeimn. Private to "medicina": a. Private to "medicine": -.

"medicina" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "medicine" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

medicina ← emdicina · mdeicina · medciina · meddicina · mediccina · medician · medicinna · medicnia
medicine ← emdicine · mdeicine · medciine · meddicine · mediccine · medicien · medicinne · medicnie

Frequency comparison

medicina#1,854

medicine#21,513

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "medicina" and "medicine" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/me.dʒi.ˈsi.nə/ versus /ˈmɛ.də.sɪn/, /ˈmɛ.ɾə.sɪn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "medicina" or "medicine"?

"medicina" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,854 in our Portuguese list, against #21,513 for "medicine". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering medicina vs medicine

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “medicina” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable