mer vs mir, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#22,090
“mer” frequency rank: #17,334
“mir” frequency rank: 39424
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	mer	mir
Definition	mar	milho

Letter map: mer vs mir

Shared letters muted; letters that set mer and mir apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

mer

3 ch

mir

Pair insight - mer / mir

mer and mir 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 a single letter - e in “mer” becomes i in “mir”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39424, 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/. mir is at rank #17,334, 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 39424, this pair ranks #26,824 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mer vs mir

Shared letters: mr. Private to "mer": e. Private to "mir": i.

"mer" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "mir" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mer" for "mir" ever safe?

No. They differ by a single letter - e in “mer” becomes i in “mir”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Frequency check: "mer" vs "mir" - which ranks higher?

"mir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,334 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

Pair "mer" vs "mir" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "mer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "mir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #26,824 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"mer" and "mir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mer". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #26,824 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.