malasvsmudasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,034
“malas” frequency rank
#28,085
“mudas” frequency rank
30119
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malas mudas
Definition Forma del femenino plural de malo o de mal. Forma del femenino plural de mudo.

Where the eye mixes malas and mudas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. malas and mudas follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
malas
5 ch
mudas

Visual trap between malas and mudas

A purely visual mix-up. malas ([ˈmalas]) and mudas ([ˈmuð̞as]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malas is recorded at frequency rank #2,034, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmalas]. mudas is at rank #28,085, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmuð̞as].

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 30119, this pair ranks #213,581 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of malas vs mudas

Shared letters: ams. Private to "malas": l. Private to "mudas": du.

"malas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mudas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malasamlas · maals · malass · malsa · mlaas · mmalas
  • mudasmduas · mmudas · muads · mudass · muddas · mudsa · umdas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "malas" and "mudas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmalas] versus [ˈmuð̞as]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "malas" or "mudas" show up more?
"malas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,034 in our Spanish list, against #28,085 for "mudas". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mudas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,581 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malas" and "mudas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "modal vs mudas". 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 #213,581 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