mortevsmoteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#281
“morte” frequency rank
#18,928
“mote” frequency rank
19209
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature morte mote
Definition ato de morrer ou efeito de matar; fato ou momento que leva algo do estado vivo para o estado morto partícula de pó

Where the eye mixes morte and mote

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

5 ch
morte
4 ch
mote

Visual trap between morte and mote

A purely visual mix-up. morte (/ˈmɔr.tʃi/ /ˈmɔr.ti/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

morte is recorded at frequency rank #281, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɔr.tʃi/ /ˈmɔr.ti/. 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 19209, this pair ranks #51,584 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of morte vs mote

Shared letters: emot. Private to "morte": r. Private to "mote": -.

"morte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • morte ← mmorte · moret · morrte · mortte · motre · mrote · omrte
  • mote ← mmote · moet · motte · mtoe · omte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "morte" and "mote" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɔr.tʃi/ /ˈmɔr.ti/ versus /moʊt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "morte" vs "mote" - which ranks higher?
"morte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #281 in our Portuguese list, against #18,928 for "mote". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "morte" 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 #51,584 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "morte" and "mote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mote vs muto". 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 #51,584 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