medirvsmeditarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,434
“medir” frequency rank
#24,385
“meditar” frequency rank
31819
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature medir meditar
Definition ter como medida pensar sobre

Where the eye mixes medir and meditar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. medir runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against meditar's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
medir
7 ch
meditar

Why the eye confuses medir with meditar

A purely visual mix-up. medir (/mɨ.ˈdiɾ/) and meditar (/mɨ.di.ˈtaɾ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31819, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

medir is recorded at frequency rank #7,434, classified as averb, pronounced /mɨ.ˈdiɾ/. meditar is at rank #24,385, tagged as averb, pronounced /mɨ.di.ˈtaɾ/.

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 31819, this pair ranks #36,151 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of medir vs meditar

Shared letters: deimr. Private to "medir": -. Private to "meditar": at.

"medir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "meditar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mediremdir · mdeir · meddir · medirr · medri · meidr · mmedir
  • meditaremditar · mdeitar · medditar · mediatr · meditarr · meditra · medittar · medtiar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "medir" and "meditar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/mɨ.ˈdiɾ/ versus /mɨ.di.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "medir" or "meditar"?
"medir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,434 in our Portuguese list, against #24,385 for "meditar". 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 "medir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meditar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,151 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "medir" and "meditar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meditar vs mendigar". 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 #36,151 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