machvsmalTell them apart

Which to use

“mach” and “mal” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,130
“mach” frequency rank
#193
“mal” frequency rank
35323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mach mal
Definition Medida de velocidad relativa que se define como el cociente entre la velocidad de un objeto y la velocidad del sonido en el medio en que se mueve dicho objeto. Carencia de bondad.

Where the eye mixes mach and mal

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mach
3 ch
mal

Visual trap between mach and mal

A purely visual mix-up. mach ([ˈmat͡ʃ]) and mal ([ˈmal]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mach is recorded at frequency rank #35,130, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmat͡ʃ]. mal is at rank #193, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmal].

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 35323, this pair ranks #186,711 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mach vs mal

Shared letters: am. Private to "mach": ch. Private to "mal": l.

"mach" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mal" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • machamch · macch · machh · mahc · mcah · mmach

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mach" for "mal" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmat͡ʃ] versus [ˈmal]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mach" vs "mal" - which ranks higher?
"mal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #193 in our Spanish list, against #35,130 for "mach". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "mach" and "mal" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mal" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #186,711 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mach" and "mal" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mach vs math". 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 #186,711 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list