minutovsmutoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,107
“minuto” frequency rank
#43,549
“muto” frequency rank
45656
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature minuto muto
Definition período de tempo correspondente a 60 segundos mudar algo de sítio, remover.

Where the eye mixes minuto and muto

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

6 ch
minuto
4 ch
muto

Why the eye confuses minuto with muto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: minuto is /mi.ˈnu.tu/ while muto is /ˈmuː.toː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 45656, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

minuto is recorded at frequency rank #2,107, classified as anoun, pronounced /mi.ˈnu.tu/. muto is at rank #43,549, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈmuː.toː/.

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 45656, this pair ranks #19,737 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of minuto vs muto

Shared letters: motu. Private to "minuto": in. Private to "muto": -.

"minuto" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "muto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • minutoimnuto · minnuto · mintuo · minuot · minutto · miunto · mminuto · mniuto
  • mutommuto · mtuo · muot · mutto · umto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "minuto" for "muto" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "minuto" is a noun and "muto" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "minuto" vs "muto" - which ranks higher?
"minuto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,107 in our Portuguese list, against #43,549 for "muto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "minuto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,737 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "minuto" and "muto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muso vs muto". 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 #19,737 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