medovsmundoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#379
“medo” frequency rank
#81
“mundo” frequency rank
460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature medo mundo
Definition que pertence ou se refere à Média mundificado, limpo; puro

Where the eye mixes medo and mundo

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

4 ch
medo
5 ch
mundo

Visual trap between medo and mundo

A purely visual mix-up. medo (AFI: /'me.du/) and mundo ([ˈmʊ̃dʊ]) 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 460, 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/. mundo is at rank #81, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmʊ̃dʊ].

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 460, this pair ranks #75,197 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of medo vs mundo

Shared letters: dmo. Private to "medo": e. Private to "mundo": nu.

"medo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mundo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • medoemdo · mdeo · meddo · meod · mmedo
  • mundommundo · mnudo · mudno · munddo · munndo · munod · umndo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "medo" and "mundo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (AFI: /'me.du/ versus [ˈmʊ̃dʊ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "medo" vs "mundo" - which ranks higher?
"mundo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #81 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "medo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mundo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,197 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "medo" and "mundo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "medo 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 #75,197 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