medovsmodaConfusable pair

Quick tell: medo is a adjective, moda is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“medo” is an adjective and “moda” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#379
“medo” frequency rank
#2,154
“moda” frequency rank
2533
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature medo moda
Definition que pertence ou se refere à Média uso passageiro que regula, de acordo com o gosto do momento, a forma de viver, de vestir, etc

Where the eye mixes medo and moda

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
medo
4 ch
moda

Visual trap between medo and moda

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: medo is AFI: /'me.du/ while moda is /ˈmɔ.dɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2533, 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/. moda is at rank #2,154, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɔ.dɐ/.

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 2533, this pair ranks #72,826 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of medo vs moda

Shared letters: dmo. Private to "medo": e. Private to "moda": a.

"medo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "moda" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • medoemdo · mdeo · meddo · meod · mmedo
  • modamdoa · mmoda · moad · modda · omda

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "medo" for "moda" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "medo" is an adjective and "moda" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "medo" vs "moda" - which ranks higher?
"medo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #379 in our Portuguese list, against #2,154 for "moda". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "medo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moda" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,826 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "medo" and "moda" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs moda". 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 #72,826 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