meiavsmesasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,054
“meia” frequency rank
#6,789
“mesas” frequency rank
7843
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meia mesas
Definition peça de vestuário de tecido de malha que se calça sobre a pele até meio da perna plural de mesa:

Where the eye mixes meia and mesas

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

4 ch
meia
5 ch
mesas

Why the eye confuses meia with mesas

A purely visual mix-up. meia (/ˈmɐj.ɐ/) and mesas (/ˈme.zɐs/) 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 7843, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meia is recorded at frequency rank #1,054, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɐj.ɐ/. mesas is at rank #6,789, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈme.zɐs/.

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 7843, this pair ranks #66,169 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of meia vs mesas

Shared letters: aem. Private to "meia": i. Private to "mesas": s.

"meia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "mesas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meiaemia · meai · miea · mmeia
  • mesasemsas · meass · mesass · messas · mmesas · mseas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "meia" for "mesas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɐj.ɐ/ versus /ˈme.zɐs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "meia" or "mesas"?
"meia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,054 in our Portuguese list, against #6,789 for "mesas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "meia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mesas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,169 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meia" and "mesas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mens vs mesas". 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 #66,169 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