mata

[ˈmat̪a]

/[ˈmat̪a]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“mata” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #2,618) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#2,618
frequency rank, Spanish
3,868
“M” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Planta de poca altura y tallo múltiple o ramificado.

Corpus desk

Index ES-mata · mata · Spanish

mata · rank #2,618 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,618
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,868
  • PHOTO-FINISH llorar

Nearest frequency peer: llorar (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Vecinos de frecuencia del confusable “mata”

Pares de peso similar en el corpus, aparte de los confusables abajo

corpus weight

What this shows Las barras sitúan “mata” frente a los lemas españoles más cercanos por rango, no un reprint del escritorio de confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

mata vs max
50% similar
mata vs mia
50% similar
mata vs may
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for mata
PropertyValue
Headwordmata
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈmat̪a]
Letters4
Frequency rank#2,618
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rango de corpus junto a confusables de “mata”

De izquierda a derecha: las pocas palabras que cargan el habla diaria, luego la cola larga casi invisible.matacae aquí:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

La escala es logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× más rara). En la misma franja de rareza aparecen “llorar” (#2,617), “meta” (#2,619), “listas” (#2,616). Entre 3,868 lemas con “M”, “mata” va en #2,618. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for mata is neighbouring look-alikes ("max", "mia", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [ˈmat̪a]. Frequency #2,618 among 3,868 “M” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for mata, with forms such as "amta", "maat", and "mmata". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "max", "mia", "may", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct Spanish form is mata, spelled M-A-T-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Planta de poca altura y tallo múltiple o ramificado.
  2. 2
    Cada una de varias plantas herbáceas que crecen juntas formando un haz apretado.
  3. 3
    Huerta de árboles de una misma especie.
  4. 4
    Lentisco (Pistacia lentiscus): arbusto dioico de la familia de las Anacardiáceas, de unos ocho metros de altura. Perennifolio, de corteza marrón rojiza, muy ramificado, hojas pinnadas, flores pequeñas de color amarillo rojizo a rojo oscuro. El fruto, de color rojo y negro, es usado como condimento y como goma de mascar (chicle). La resina de su tallo tiene uso como barniz y como materia prima en perfumería y en la industria farmacéutica. Su hábitat es la región del Mediterráneo.
  5. 5
    Por extensión, planta de cualquier tipo, ya sea herbácea, arbustiva o arbórea.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how mata appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Las pulquerías, emblema de la clase popular de nuestro país, lucha por sobrevivir y se rehúsa a dejar de contarnos sus historias, las cuales son un reflejo de nuestra propia entidad. “Agua de las verdes matas, tú me tumbas, tú me matas, tú me haces andar a gatas, con la cola entre las patas

Synonyms

alfóncigoalfostigueiroalmacegueiraalmácigacharnecadarodaroeiralentiscolentisco macholentisco verdaderomata charnecapistacheropistacho

This word in other languages

shrub(English)arbrisseau(Français)Strauch(Deutsch)mata(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • amta
  • maat
  • mmata
  • mtaa

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mata - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

amta2maat2mmata1mtaa2
Edit distance from "mata"

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 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mata"?
"mata" is spelled M-A-T-A. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈmat̪a].
What does "mata" mean?
As a noun, "mata" means: Planta de poca altura y tallo múltiple o ramificado.
What words are commonly confused with "mata"?
"mata" is commonly confused with "max", "mia", "may". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "mata"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mata" is [ˈmat̪a]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mata" come from?
"mata" is a Spanish word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Spanish words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mata", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Spanish headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

meta#2,619cien#2,593saca#2,579paro#2,678

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list