mostvsmoteTell them apart

Quick tell: most is a adverb, mote is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“most” is an adverb and “mote” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,567
“most” frequency rank
#18,928
“mote” frequency rank
32495
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature most mote
Definition muito partícula de pó

Letter map: most vs mote

Shared letters muted; letters that set most and mote apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
most
4 ch
mote

Role in the sentence - most and mote

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: most is anadverb and moteanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32495, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

most is recorded at frequency rank #13,567, classified as anadv. 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 32495, this pair ranks #35,298 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of most vs mote

Shared letters: mot. Private to "most": s. Private to "mote": e.

"most" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mostmmost · mosst · mostt · mots · msot · omst
  • motemmote · moet · motte · mtoe · omte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "most" and "mote" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "most" is an adverb and "mote" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "most" or "mote" show up more?
"most" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,567 in our Portuguese list, against #18,928 for "mote". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "most" and "mote".

  • Full dictionary entry for "most" 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 #35,298 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "most" 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 #35,298 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