memovsmoçoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#35,681
“memo” frequency rank
#12,496
“moço” frequency rank
48177
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature memo moço
Definition mesmo verde, não maduro

Letter map: memo vs moço

Shared letters muted; letters that set memo and moço apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
memo
4 ch
moço

Role in the sentence - memo and moço

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: memo is anadverb and moçoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48177, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

memo is recorded at frequency rank #35,681, classified as anadv. moço is at rank #12,496, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmo.sʊ/.

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 48177, this pair ranks #17,018 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of memo vs moço

Shared letters: mo. Private to "memo": e. Private to "moço": ç.

"memo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "moço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • memoemmo · memmo · meom · mmemo · mmeo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "memo" and "moço" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "memo" is an adverb and "moço" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "memo" vs "moço" - which ranks higher?
"moço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,496 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

You've compared "memo" and "moço". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "memo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,018 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "memo" and "moço" 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 #17,018 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