médiovsmeioConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#994
“médio” frequency rank
#190
“meio” frequency rank
1184
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature médio meio
Definition que está a meio caminho entre dois extremos designativo de metade

Where the eye mixes médio and meio

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

5 ch
médio
4 ch
meio

Look-alike desk: médio vs meio

A purely visual mix-up. médio (/ˈmɛ.dju/) and meio (/ˈmɐj.u/) 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 1184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

médio is recorded at frequency rank #994, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɛ.dju/. meio is at rank #190, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɐj.u/.

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 1184, this pair ranks #74,413 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of médio vs meio

Shared letters: imo. Private to "médio": . Private to "meio": e.

"médio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "meio" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meioemio · meoi · mieo · mmeio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "médio" for "meio" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɛ.dju/ versus /ˈmɐj.u/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "médio" vs "meio" - which ranks higher?
"meio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #190 in our Portuguese list, against #994 for "médio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "médio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,413 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "médio" and "meio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meio vs muso". 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 #74,413 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