MelovsmêsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,570
“Melo” frequency rank
#444
“mês” frequency rank
5014
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Melo mês
Definition sobrenome cada uma das doze partes em que se divide o ano

Where the eye mixes Melo and mês

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
Melo
3 ch
mês

Why the eye confuses Melo with mês

A purely visual mix-up. Melo (/ˈmɛ.lu/) and mês (/ˈmeʃ/) 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 5014, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Melo is recorded at frequency rank #4,570, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛ.lu/. mês is at rank #444, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeʃ/.

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 5014, this pair ranks #69,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Melo vs mês

Shared letters: m. Private to "Melo": elo. Private to "mês": .

"Melo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mês" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meloemlo · mello · meol · mleo · mmelo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Melo" and "mês" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɛ.lu/ versus /ˈmeʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Melo" vs "mês" - which ranks higher?
"mês" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #444 in our Portuguese list, against #4,570 for "Melo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Melo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mês" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Melo" and "mês" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Melo vs muso". 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 #69,711 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