mentevsmestreConfusable pair

Quick tell: mente is a noun, mestre is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mente” is a noun and “mestre” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#990
“mente” frequency rank
#1,470
“mestre” frequency rank
2460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mente mestre
Definition conjunto das ideias e convicções de uma pessoa; o resultado do trabalho cerebral de uma pessoal, intangível mas perceptível em sua forma de raciocinar superior

Letter map: mente vs mestre

Shared letters muted; letters that set mente and mestre apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. mente runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against mestre's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
mente
6 ch
mestre

Grammar separator: mente vs mestre

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mente is anoun and mestreanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mente is recorded at frequency rank #990, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmẽ.t͡ʃi/. mestre is at rank #1,470, tagged as anadj.

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 2460, this pair ranks #72,921 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mente vs mestre

Shared letters: emt. Private to "mente": n. Private to "mestre": rs.

"mente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mestre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mente ← emnte · menet · mennte · mentte · metne · mmente · mnete
  • mestre ← emstre · mesrte · messtre · mester · mestrre · mesttre · metsre · mmestre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mente" and "mestre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mente" is a noun and "mestre" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mente" or "mestre" show up more?
"mente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #990 in our Portuguese list, against #1,470 for "mestre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mente" and "mestre".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mestre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,921 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mente" and "mestre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mens vs mente". 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 #72,921 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