moervsmoleTell them apart

Quick tell: moer is a verb, mole is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#33,946
“moer” frequency rank
#7,187
“mole” frequency rank
41133
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moer mole
Definition reduzir a pó por meio de moinho não duro

Where the eye mixes moer and mole

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
moer
4 ch
mole

Visual trap between moer and mole

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moer is /ˈmweɾ/ while mole is /ˈmɔ.lɨ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moer is recorded at frequency rank #33,946, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈmweɾ/. mole is at rank #7,187, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɔ.lɨ/.

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 41133, this pair ranks #24,855 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of moer vs mole

Shared letters: emo. Private to "moer": r. Private to "mole": l.

"moer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moermmoer · moerr · more · omer
  • molemloe · mmole · moel · molle · omle

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "moer" and "mole" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moer" is a verb and "mole" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "moer" vs "mole" - which ranks higher?
"mole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,187 in our Portuguese list, against #33,946 for "moer". 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 "moer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,855 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moer" and "mole" 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 #24,855 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