memovsmeroWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: memo is a adverb, mero is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“memo” is an adverb and “mero” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,681
“memo” frequency rank
#12,105
“mero” frequency rank
47786
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature memo mero
Definition mesmo simples

Letter map: memo vs mero

Shared letters muted; letters that set memo and mero apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. memo and mero follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
memo
4 ch
mero

Role in the sentence - memo and mero

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: memo is anadverb and meroanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “memo” becomes r in “mero”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

memo is recorded at frequency rank #35,681, classified as anadv. mero is at rank #12,105, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɛ.ɾu/.

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 47786, this pair ranks #17,439 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of memo vs mero

Shared letters: emo. Private to "memo": -. Private to "mero": r.

"memo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mero" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • memo ← emmo · memmo · meom · mmemo · mmeo
  • mero ← emro · meor · merro · mmero · mreo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "memo" for "mero" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "memo" is an adverb and "mero" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "memo" or "mero"?
"mero" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,105 in our Portuguese list, against #35,681 for "memo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "memo" and "mero".

  • Full dictionary entry for "memo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mero" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,439 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "memo" and "mero" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "memo 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 #17,439 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