Which to use
“melão” and “mesas” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,854
- “melão” frequency rank
- #6,789
- “mesas” frequency rank
- 24643
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melão | mesas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | o fruto do meloeiro, Cucumis melo | plural de mesa: |
Where the eye mixes melão and mesas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. melão (CVCVV) and mesas (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between melão and mesas
A purely visual mix-up. melão (/mɨ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) and mesas (/ˈme.zɐs/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24643, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
melão is recorded at frequency rank #17,854, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɨ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/. mesas is at rank #6,789, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈme.zɐs/.
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 24643, this pair ranks #44,912 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of melão vs mesas
Shared letters: em. Private to "melão": loã. Private to "mesas": as.
"melão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "mesas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mesas ← emsas · meass · mesass · messas · mmesas · mseas
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "melão" for "mesas" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "melão" or "mesas" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "melão" and "mesas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "melão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mesas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,912 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melão" and "mesas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "melado vs melão". 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 #44,912 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.