mulavsmustWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,501
“mula” frequency rank
#17,586
“must” frequency rank
37087
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mula must
Definition animal fêmea resultante do cruzamento dum jumento com uma égua algo necessário, geralmente por estar na moda, por ser muito popular ou básico

Letter map: mula vs must

Shared letters muted; letters that set mula and must apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mula
4 ch
must

Corpus notes: mula and must

mula and must are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mula is recorded at frequency rank #19,501, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmu.lɐ/. must is at rank #17,586, tagged as anoun.

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 37087, this pair ranks #29,601 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mula vs must

Shared letters: mu. Private to "mula": al. Private to "must": st.

"mula" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "must" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mulamlua · mmula · mual · mulla · umla
  • mustmmust · msut · musst · mustt · muts · umst

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mula" for "must" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "mula" vs "must" - which ranks higher?
"must" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,586 in our Portuguese list, against #19,501 for "mula". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "mula" vs "must" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mula" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "must" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,601 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mula" and "must" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mula". 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 #29,601 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