mundovsmutoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mundo is a adjective, muto is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mundo” is an adjective and “muto” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#81
“mundo” frequency rank
#43,549
“muto” frequency rank
43630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mundo muto
Definition mundificado, limpo; puro mudar algo de sítio, remover.

Where the eye mixes mundo and muto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mundo runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against muto's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
mundo
4 ch
muto

Look-alike desk: mundo vs muto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mundo is [ˈmʊ̃dʊ] while muto is /ˈmuː.toː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mundo is recorded at frequency rank #81, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmʊ̃dʊ]. muto is at rank #43,549, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈmuː.toː/.

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 43630, this pair ranks #22,000 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mundo vs muto

Shared letters: mou. Private to "mundo": dn. Private to "muto": t.

"mundo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "muto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mundo ← mmundo · mnudo · mudno · munddo · munndo · munod · umndo
  • muto ← mmuto · mtuo · muot · mutto · umto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mundo" and "muto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mundo" is an adjective and "muto" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mundo" vs "muto" - which ranks higher?
"mundo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #81 in our Portuguese list, against #43,549 for "muto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mundo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,000 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mundo" and "muto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muso 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 #22,000 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