medovsmenosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#379
“medo” frequency rank
#149
“menos” frequency rank
528
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature medo menos
Definition que pertence ou se refere à Média forma comparativa de pouco; quantidade inferior de:

Where the eye mixes medo and menos

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

4 ch
medo
5 ch
menos

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. medo (AFI: /'me.du/) and menos (/ˈme.nʊs/) 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 528, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

medo is recorded at frequency rank #379, classified as anadj, pronounced AFI: /'me.du/. menos is at rank #149, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈme.nʊs/.

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 528, this pair ranks #75,140 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of medo vs menos

Shared letters: emo. Private to "medo": d. Private to "menos": ns.

"medo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "menos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • medoemdo · mdeo · meddo · meod · mmedo
  • menosemnos · mennos · menoss · menso · meons · mmenos · mneos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "medo" and "menos" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (AFI: /'me.du/ versus /ˈme.nʊs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "medo" or "menos"?
"menos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #149 in our Portuguese list, against #379 for "medo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list