malvavsmaníaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,657
“malva” frequency rank
#16,151
“manía” frequency rank
62808
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malva manía
Definition Planta florada de la familia de las malváceas y la flor de dicha planta. Entusiasmo excesivo, interés intenso o deseo irresistible.

Where the eye mixes malva and manía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. malva (CVCCV) and manía (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
malva
5 ch
manía

Look-alike desk: malva vs manía

A purely visual mix-up. malva ([ˈmalβ̞a]) and manía ([maˈnia]) 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 62808, 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]. manía is at rank #16,151, tagged as anoun, pronounced [maˈnia].

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 62808, this pair ranks #50,775 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malva vs manía

Shared letters: am. Private to "malva": lv. Private to "manía": ní.

"malva" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "manía" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malva ← amlva · malav · malba · mallva · malvva · mavla · mlava · mmalva

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malva" and "manía" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmalβ̞a] versus [maˈnia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "malva" or "manía" show up more?
"manía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,151 in our Spanish list, against #46,657 for "malva". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "malva" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,775 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malva" and "manía" 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 #50,775 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