mentiravsmestraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,243
“mentira” frequency rank
#21,241
“mestra” frequency rank
23484
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mentira mestra
Definition declaração feita por alguém que acredita ou suspeita que ela seja falsa, na expectativa de que os ouvintes ou leitores possam acreditar nela abelha-rainha de uma colmeia

Letter map: mentira vs mestra

Shared letters muted; letters that set mentira and mestra apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. mentira runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against mestra's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
mentira
6 ch
mestra

Corpus notes: mentira and mestra

mentira and mestra are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23484, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mentira is recorded at frequency rank #2,243, classified as anoun, pronounced /mẽ.ˈti.ɾɐ/. mestra is at rank #21,241, tagged as anoun.

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 23484, this pair ranks #46,339 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mentira vs mestra

Shared letters: aemrt. Private to "mentira": in. Private to "mestra": s.

"mentira" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "mestra" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mentira ← emntira · menitra · menntira · mentiar · mentirra · mentria · menttira · metnira
  • mestra ← emstra · mesrta · messtra · mestar · mestrra · mesttra · metsra · mmestra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mentira" and "mestra" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mentira" or "mestra" show up more?
"mentira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,243 in our Portuguese list, against #21,241 for "mestra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "mentira" vs "mestra" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mentira" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mestra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,339 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mentira" and "mestra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mestra vs mitra". 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 #46,339 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