Which to use
“melão” and “mula” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,854
- “melão” frequency rank
- #19,501
- “mula” frequency rank
- 37355
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melão | mula |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | o fruto do meloeiro, Cucumis melo | animal fêmea resultante do cruzamento dum jumento com uma égua |
Where the eye mixes melão and mula
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. melão runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against mula's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between melão and mula
A purely visual mix-up. melão (/mɨ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) and mula (/ˈmu.lɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37355, 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/. mula is at rank #19,501, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmu.lɐ/.
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 37355, this pair ranks #29,274 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of melão vs mula
Shared letters: lm. Private to "melão": eoã. Private to "mula": au.
"melão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "mula" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mula ← mlua · mmula · mual · mulla · umla
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "melão" and "mula" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "melão" or "mula" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "melão" and "mula" 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 "mula" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #29,274 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melão" and "mula" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mula". 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 #29,274 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.