majovsmazaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: majo is a adjective, maza is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“majo” is an adjective and “maza” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,286
“majo” frequency rank
#19,489
“maza” frequency rank
48775
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature majo maza
Definition Agradable a la vista o en el trato. Arma antigua, hecha de palo guarnecido de hierro, o toda de hierro, con la cabeza gruesa.

Where the eye mixes majo and maza

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. majo and maza follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
majo
4 ch
maza

Visual trap between majo and maza

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: majo is [ˈmaxo] while maza is [ˈmasa]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48775, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

majo is recorded at frequency rank #29,286, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmaxo]. maza is at rank #19,489, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmasa].

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 48775, this pair ranks #112,614 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of majo vs maza

Shared letters: am. Private to "majo": jo. Private to "maza": z.

"majo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "maza" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • majoamjo · majjo · maoj · mjao · mmajo
  • mazaamza · maaz · mazza · mmaza · mzaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "majo" for "maza" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "majo" is an adjective and "maza" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "majo" or "maza" show up more?
"maza" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,489 in our Spanish list, against #29,286 for "majo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "majo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maza" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #112,614 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "majo" and "maza" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "majo 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 #112,614 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