meiavsmeshTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,054
“meia” frequency rank
#43,032
“mesh” frequency rank
44086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meia mesh
Definition peça de vestuário de tecido de malha que se calça sobre a pele até meio da perna interstício

Where the eye mixes meia and mesh

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. meia (CVVV) and mesh (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
meia
4 ch
mesh

Visual trap between meia and mesh

A purely visual mix-up. meia (/ˈmɐj.ɐ/) and mesh (/ˈmɛʃ/) 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 44086, 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/. mesh is at rank #43,032, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛʃ/.

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 44086, this pair ranks #21,457 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of meia vs mesh

Shared letters: em. Private to "meia": ai. Private to "mesh": hs.

"meia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "mesh" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meia ← emia · meai · miea · mmeia
  • mesh ← emsh · mehs · meshh · messh · mmesh · mseh

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "meia" for "mesh" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɐj.ɐ/ versus /ˈmɛʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "meia" vs "mesh" - which ranks higher?
"meia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,054 in our Portuguese list, against #43,032 for "mesh". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "meia" and "mesh" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "meia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mesh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,457 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meia" and "mesh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mesh 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 #21,457 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