melaninavsmelanomaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,258
“melanina” frequency rank
#47,485
“melanoma” frequency rank
79743
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature melanina melanoma
Definition pigmento na forma de proteína, responsável pela cor dos fios de cabelo, da pele, das unhas e cerdas de pelos tipo de câncer que atinge o tecido epitelial, mais especificamente a pele

Letter map: melanina vs melanoma

Shared letters muted; letters that set melanina and melanoma apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. melanina and melanoma follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
melanina
8 ch
melanoma

Corpus notes: melanina and melanoma

melanina and melanoma are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79743, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

melanina is recorded at frequency rank #32,258, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɨ.lɐ.ˈni.nɐ/. melanoma is at rank #47,485, tagged as anoun.

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 79743, this pair ranks #1,449 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of melanina vs melanoma

Shared letters: aelmn. Private to "melanina": i. Private to "melanoma": o.

"melanina" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "melanoma" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • melanina ← emlanina · mealnina · melainna · melanian · melaninna · melannia · melannina · mellanina
  • melanoma ← emlanoma · mealnoma · melanmoa · melannoma · melanoam · melanomma · melaonma · mellanoma

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "melanina" for "melanoma" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "melanina" vs "melanoma" - which ranks higher?
"melanina" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,258 in our Portuguese list, against #47,485 for "melanoma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "melanina" vs "melanoma" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "melanina" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "melanoma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,449 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "melanina" and "melanoma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "melancia vs melanoma". 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 #1,449 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