meiovsmuitoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#190
“meio” frequency rank
#39
“muito” frequency rank
229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meio muito
Definition designativo de metade em alto grau

Where the eye mixes meio and muito

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

4 ch
meio
5 ch
muito

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meio is /ˈmɐj.u/ while muito is /ˈmũj.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 229, 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/. muito is at rank #39, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈmũj.tu/.

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 229, this pair ranks #75,405 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of meio vs muito

Shared letters: imo. Private to "meio": e. Private to "muito": tu.

"meio" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "muito" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meioemio · meoi · mieo · mmeio
  • muitomiuto · mmuito · muiot · muitto · mutio · umito

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "meio" and "muito" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "meio" is an adjective and "muito" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "meio" or "muito"?
"muito" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39 in our Portuguese list, against #190 for "meio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list