Which to use
“medo” is an adjective and “meu” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #379
- “medo” frequency rank
- #46
- “meu” frequency rank
- 425
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | medo | meu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | que pertence ou se refere à Média | de posse da primeira pessoa do singular (eu); pertencente a mim |
Where the eye mixes medo and meu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses medo with meu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: medo is AFI: /'me.du/ while meu is /ˈmew/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 425, 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/. meu is at rank #46, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈmew/.
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 425, this pair ranks #75,227 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of medo vs meu
Shared letters: em. Private to "medo": do. Private to "meu": u.
"medo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "meu" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- medo ← emdo · mdeo · meddo · meod · mmedo
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "medo" and "meu" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "medo" or "meu"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "medo" and "meu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "medo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "meu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #75,227 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "medo" and "meu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs meu". 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 #75,227 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.