mognovsmotoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,542
“mogno” frequency rank
#3,422
“moto” frequency rank
46964
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mogno moto
Definition árvore meliácea da América tropical, especialmente das Antilhas (Swietenia mahogani), de madeira dura, marrom-avermelhada, muito apreciada para marcenaria de luxo ato ou efeito de mover; movimento

Where the eye mixes mogno and moto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mogno runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against moto's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
mogno
4 ch
moto

Why the eye confuses mogno with moto

A purely visual mix-up. mogno (/ˈmɔgnu/) and moto (/ˈmɔ.tu/) 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 46964, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mogno is recorded at frequency rank #43,542, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɔgnu/. moto is at rank #3,422, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɔ.tu/.

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 46964, this pair ranks #18,344 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mogno vs moto

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mogno": gn. Private to "moto": t.

"mogno" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "moto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mogno ← mgono · mmogno · moggno · mognno · mogon · mongo · omgno
  • moto ← mmoto · moot · motto · mtoo · omto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mogno" and "moto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɔgnu/ versus /ˈmɔ.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mogno" or "moto" show up more?
"moto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,422 in our Portuguese list, against #43,542 for "mogno". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "mogno" and "moto" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mogno" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,344 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mogno" and "moto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mogno vs moído". 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 #18,344 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