melão vs milhão, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#17,854
“melão” frequency rank: #1,895
“milhão” frequency rank: 19749
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	melão	milhão
Definition	o fruto do meloeiro, Cucumis melo	grande quantidade incontável:

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set melão and milhão apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

melão

6 ch

milhão

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

melão and milhão 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19749, 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/. milhão is at rank #1,895, 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 19749, this pair ranks #50,909 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of melão vs milhão

Shared letters: lmoã. Private to "melão": e. Private to "milhão": hi.

"melão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "milhão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequency comparison

melão#17,854

milhão#1,895

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "melão" and "milhão" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "melão" or "milhão"?

"milhão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,895 in our Portuguese list, against #17,854 for "melão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering melão vs milhão

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “melão” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable