Which to use
“malva” is a noun and “malvada” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,657
- “malva” frequency rank
- #20,419
- “malvada” frequency rank
- 67076
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malva | malvada |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Planta florada de la familia de las malváceas y la flor de dicha planta. | Forma del femenino de malvado, participio de malvar. |
Where the eye mixes malva and malvada
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: malva vs malvada
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: malva is [ˈmalβ̞a] while malvada is [malˈβ̞að̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “malva” sits inside “malvada”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malva is recorded at frequency rank #46,657, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmalβ̞a]. malvada is at rank #20,419, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [malˈβ̞að̞a].
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 67076, this pair ranks #38,089 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of malva vs malvada
Shared letters: almv. Private to "malva": -. Private to "malvada": d.
"malva" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "malvada" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "malva" for "malvada" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "malva" or "malvada" show up more?
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 "malva" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malvada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #38,089 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malva" and "malvada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malva vs Matta". 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 #38,089 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.