mao
"mao" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mao” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,014 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,014
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The ma'oma'o, Gymnomyza samoensis, a large passerine bird native to Samoa.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mao |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #13,014 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mao” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mao is 3 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #13,014 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The ma'oma'o, Gymnomyza samoensis, a large passerine bird native to Samoa.".
No misspelling variants are generated for mao in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "my", "ME", "Mr", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Samoan ma'o, from ma'oma'o. The correct English form is mao, spelled M-A-O.
Definition
- 1The ma'oma'o, Gymnomyza samoensis, a large passerine bird native to Samoa.
Etymology
Borrowed from Samoan ma'o, from ma'oma'o.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “mao”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “my” - see the side-by-side comparison. mao vs my
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.