malavsmolWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#748
“mala” frequency rank
#40,405
“mol” frequency rank
41153
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mala mol
Definition Forma del femenino singular de malo. Unidad de cantidad de sustancia empleada en el Sistema Internacional de Unidades, definida como la cantidad de sustancia de un sistema que contiene tantos entes elementales como átomos hay en 0,012 kg del nucleído carbono-12, o como la cantidad de una sustancia cuyo peso en gramos equivale a su número atómico. Si se emplea para expresar la cantidad de una sustancia, debe indicarse a qué tipo de unidades corresponde: átomos, moléculas, etc. El número de unidades contenidas está representado por el número de Avogadro.

Where the eye mixes mala and mol

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

4 ch
mala
3 ch
mol

Look-alike desk: mala vs mol

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mala is [ˈmala] while mol is [ˈmol]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mala is recorded at frequency rank #748, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmala]. mol is at rank #40,405, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmol].

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 41153, this pair ranks #155,237 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mala vs mol

Shared letters: lm. Private to "mala": a. Private to "mol": o.

"mala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mol" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malaamla · maal · mlaa · mmala

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mala" for "mol" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mala" is an adjective and "mol" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mala" or "mol"?
"mala" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #748 in our Spanish list, against #40,405 for "mol". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mol" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #155,237 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mala" and "mol" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mol vs mur". 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 #155,237 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