makovsmiroWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“mako” and “miro” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,126
“mako” frequency rank
#46,628
“miro” frequency rank
76754
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mako miro
Definition Ellipsis of mako shark A large conifer of New Zealand, Pectinopitys ferruginea (syn. Prumnopitys ferruginea), with narrow leaves and reddish fruit; the wood of this tree.

Letter map: mako vs miro

Shared letters muted; letters that set mako and miro apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mako
4 ch
miro

Pair insight - mako / miro

mako and miro are indexed as a confusable English 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 76754, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mako is recorded at frequency rank #30,126, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɑkoʊ/. miro is at rank #46,628, 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 76754, this pair ranks #29,225 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mako vs miro

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mako": ak. Private to "miro": ir.

"mako" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "miro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • makoamko · makko · maok · mkao · mmako
  • miroimro · mior · mirro · mmiro · mrio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mako" for "miro" 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.
In ordinary English text, does "mako" or "miro" show up more?
"mako" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,126 in our English list, against #46,628 for "miro". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "mako" and "miro". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mako" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "miro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,225 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mako" and "miro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marl vs miro". 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 #29,225 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list