meiovsmemoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: meio is a adjective, memo is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“meio” is an adjective and “memo” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#190
“meio” frequency rank
#35,681
“memo” frequency rank
35871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meio memo
Definition designativo de metade mesmo

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set meio and memo apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
meio
4 ch
memo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: meio is anadjective and memoanadverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “meio” becomes m in “memo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meio is recorded at frequency rank #190, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɐj.u/. memo is at rank #35,681, tagged as anadv.

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 35871, this pair ranks #31,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of meio vs memo

Shared letters: emo. Private to "meio": i. Private to "memo": -.

"meio" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "memo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meioemio · meoi · mieo · mmeio
  • memoemmo · memmo · meom · mmemo · mmeo

Frequency comparison

meio#190
memo#35,681

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "meio" and "memo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "meio" is an adjective and "memo" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "meio" or "memo"?
"meio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #190 in our Portuguese list, against #35,681 for "memo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering meio vs memo

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “meio”; for an adverb, it's “memo”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “meio” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list