Which to use
“medo” and “moço” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #379
- “medo” frequency rank
- #12,496
- “moço” frequency rank
- 12875
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | medo | moço |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | que pertence ou se refere à Média | verde, não maduro |
Where the eye mixes medo and moço
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: medo vs moço
A purely visual mix-up. medo (AFI: /'me.du/) and moço (/ˈmo.sʊ/) 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 12875, 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/. moço is at rank #12,496, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmo.sʊ/.
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 12875, this pair ranks #59,592 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of medo vs moço
Shared letters: mo. Private to "medo": de. Private to "moço": ç.
"medo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "moço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- medo ← emdo · mdeo · meddo · meod · mmedo
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "medo" and "moço" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "medo" vs "moço" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "medo" and "moço" 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 "moço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,592 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "medo" and "moço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moço 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 #59,592 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.