mervsminWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mer is a noun, min is a symbol, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mer” is a noun and “min” is a symbol - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,090
“mer” frequency rank
#4,495
“min” frequency rank
26585
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mer min
Definition mar símbolo de minuto

Letter map: mer vs min

Shared letters muted; letters that set mer and min apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
mer
3 ch
min

Part-of-speech tell for mer / min

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mer is anoun and minasymbol. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mer is recorded at frequency rank #22,090, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɛʁ/. min is at rank #4,495, tagged as asymbol.

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 26585, this pair ranks #42,556 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mer vs min

Shared letters: m. Private to "mer": er. Private to "min": in.

"mer" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "min" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mer" and "min" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mer" is a noun and "min" a symbol, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mer" or "min"?
"min" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,495 in our Portuguese list, against #22,090 for "mer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "mer" and "min". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "min" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,556 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mer" and "min" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mer". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #42,556 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