mêsvsmoerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mês is a noun, moer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mês” is a noun and “moer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#444
“mês” frequency rank
#33,946
“moer” frequency rank
34390
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mês moer
Definition cada uma das doze partes em que se divide o ano reduzir a pó por meio de moinho

Where the eye mixes mês and moer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
mês
4 ch
moer

Visual trap between mês and moer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mês is /ˈmeʃ/ while moer is /ˈmweɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34390, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mês is recorded at frequency rank #444, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeʃ/. moer is at rank #33,946, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈmweɾ/.

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 34390, this pair ranks #32,888 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mês vs moer

Shared letters: m. Private to "mês": . Private to "moer": eor.

"mês" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "moer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moermmoer · moerr · more · omer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mês" and "moer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mês" is a noun and "moer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mês" or "moer" show up more?
"mês" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #444 in our Portuguese list, against #33,946 for "moer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mês" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,888 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mês" and "moer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moca vs moer". 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 #32,888 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