moodvsmoteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#25,401
“mood” frequency rank
#18,928
“mote” frequency rank
44329
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mood mote
Definition humor partícula de pó

Where the eye mixes mood and mote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mood (CVVC) and mote (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
mood
4 ch
mote

Why the eye confuses mood with mote

A purely visual mix-up. mood (/mud/) and mote (/moʊt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44329, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mood is recorded at frequency rank #25,401, classified as anoun, pronounced /mud/. mote is at rank #18,928, tagged as anoun, pronounced /moʊt/.

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 44329, this pair ranks #21,168 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mood vs mote

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mood": d. Private to "mote": et.

"mood" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mood ← mmood · mod · moodd · omod
  • mote ← mmote · moet · motte · mtoe · omte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mood" and "mote" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/mud/ versus /moʊt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mood" vs "mote" - which ranks higher?
"mote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,928 in our Portuguese list, against #25,401 for "mood". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mood" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,168 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mood" and "mote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moído vs mood". 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 #21,168 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