medirvsmeterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,434
“medir” frequency rank
#3,705
“meter” frequency rank
11139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature medir meter
Definition ter como medida introduzir; fazer entrar

Where the eye mixes medir and meter

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

5 ch
medir
5 ch
meter

Look-alike desk: medir vs meter

A purely visual mix-up. medir (/mɨ.ˈdiɾ/) and meter (/mɨ.ˈteɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11139, 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/. meter is at rank #3,705, tagged as averb, pronounced /mɨ.ˈteɾ/.

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 11139, this pair ranks #61,776 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of medir vs meter

Shared letters: emr. Private to "medir": di. Private to "meter": t.

"medir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "meter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mediremdir · mdeir · meddir · medirr · medri · meidr · mmedir
  • meteremter · meetr · meterr · metre · metter · mmeter · mteer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "medir" and "meter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/mɨ.ˈdiɾ/ versus /mɨ.ˈteɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "medir" or "meter"?
"meter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,705 in our Portuguese list, against #7,434 for "medir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "medir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,776 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "medir" and "meter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "medir 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 #61,776 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