micavsmoçãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,689
“mica” frequency rank
#13,980
“moção” frequency rank
46669
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mica moção
Definition mineral do grupo de silicatos monoclínicos ato ou efeito de mover

Where the eye mixes mica and moção

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. mica runs 4 letters (CVCV) against moção's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mica
5 ch
moção

Visual trap between mica and moção

A purely visual mix-up. mica (/ˈmi.kɐ/) and moção (/mu.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46669, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mica is recorded at frequency rank #32,689, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmi.kɐ/. moção is at rank #13,980, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mu.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 46669, this pair ranks #18,642 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mica vs moção

Shared letters: m. Private to "mica": aci. Private to "moção": oãç.

"mica" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "moção" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mica ← imca · mcia · miac · micca · mmica

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mica" for "moção" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmi.kɐ/ versus /mu.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mica" or "moção"?
"moção" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,980 in our Portuguese list, against #32,689 for "mica". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mica" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moção" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,642 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mica" and "moção" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mica vs mirra". 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 #18,642 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