modovsmonoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: modo is a noun, mono is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“modo” is a noun and “mono” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#606
“modo” frequency rank
#23,739
“mono” frequency rank
24345
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature modo mono
Definition maneira, jeito relativo a macaco: «...flor das raças monas.» Castilho.

Letter map: modo vs mono

Shared letters muted; letters that set modo and mono apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
modo
4 ch
mono

Part-of-speech tell for modo / mono

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: modo is anoun and monoanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - d in “modo” becomes n in “mono”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

modo is recorded at frequency rank #606, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɔ.du/. mono is at rank #23,739, tagged as anadj.

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 24345, this pair ranks #45,292 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of modo vs mono

Shared letters: mo. Private to "modo": d. Private to "mono": n.

"modo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mono" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • modomdoo · mmodo · moddo · omdo
  • monommono · mnoo · monno · omno

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "modo" and "mono" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "modo" is a noun and "mono" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "modo" or "mono"?
"modo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #606 in our Portuguese list, against #23,739 for "mono". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "modo" vs "mono" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "modo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mono" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,292 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "modo" and "mono" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mono vs muso". 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 #45,292 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