molevsMoonWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mole is a adjective, Moon is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#7,187
“mole” frequency rank
#9,893
“Moon” frequency rank
17080
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mole Moon
Definition não duro Lua

Where the eye mixes mole and Moon

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mole
4 ch
Moon

Look-alike desk: mole vs Moon

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mole is /ˈmɔ.lɨ/ while Moon is /mu:n/ ouvir^(fonte ?). 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17080, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mole is recorded at frequency rank #7,187, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɔ.lɨ/. Moon is at rank #9,893, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mu:n/ ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 17080, this pair ranks #54,255 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mole vs Moon

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mole": el. Private to "Moon": n.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • molemloe · mmole · moel · molle · omle
  • Moonmmoon · mon · moonn · omon

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mole" for "Moon" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mole" is an adjective and "Moon" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mole" or "Moon" show up more?
"mole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,187 in our Portuguese list, against #9,893 for "Moon". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Moon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,255 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mole" and "Moon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mogno vs Moon". 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 #54,255 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