meiovsmiWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: meio is a adjective, mi is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#190
“meio” frequency rank
#3,342
“mi” frequency rank
3532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meio mi
Definition designativo de metade mim

Where the eye mixes meio and mi

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

4 ch
meio
2 ch
mi

Why the eye confuses meio with mi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meio is /ˈmɐj.u/ while mi is /ˈmi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3532, 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/. mi is at rank #3,342, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈmi/.

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 3532, this pair ranks #71,599 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of meio vs mi

Shared letters: im. Private to "meio": eo. Private to "mi": -.

"meio" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "mi" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meioemio · meoi · mieo · mmeio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "meio" for "mi" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "meio" is an adjective and "mi" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "meio" vs "mi" - which ranks higher?
"meio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #190 in our Portuguese list, against #3,342 for "mi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "meio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,599 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meio" and "mi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mi". 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 #71,599 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