mesasvsmesesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,789
“mesas” frequency rank
#366
“meses” frequency rank
7155
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mesas meses
Definition plural de mesa: plural de mês

Where the eye mixes mesas and meses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
mesas
5 ch
meses

Why the eye confuses mesas with meses

A purely visual mix-up. mesas (/ˈme.zɐs/) and meses (/ˈme.zis/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “mesas” becomes e in “meses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mesas is recorded at frequency rank #6,789, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈme.zɐs/. meses is at rank #366, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈme.zis/.

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 7155, this pair ranks #67,051 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mesas vs meses

Shared letters: ems. Private to "mesas": a. Private to "meses": -.

"mesas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "meses" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mesasemsas · meass · mesass · messas · mmesas · mseas
  • mesesemses · meess · mesess · messes · mmeses · msees

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mesas" and "meses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈme.zɐs/ versus /ˈme.zis/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mesas" or "meses"?
"meses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #366 in our Portuguese list, against #6,789 for "mesas". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mesas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,051 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mesas" and "meses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mens vs mesas". 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 #67,051 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