mañasvsmancoConfusable pair

Quick tell: mañas is a noun, manco is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#31,436
“mañas” frequency rank
#23,485
“manco” frequency rank
54921
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mañas manco
Definition Forma del plural de maña. Que le falta un brazo o una mano, o que no puede usar alguno de estos miembros.

Where the eye mixes mañas and manco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mañas (CVCVC) and manco (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
mañas
5 ch
manco

Visual trap between mañas and manco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mañas is [ˈmaɲas] while manco is [ˈmãŋko]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54921, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mañas is recorded at frequency rank #31,436, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaɲas]. manco is at rank #23,485, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmãŋko].

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 54921, this pair ranks #81,208 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mañas vs manco

Shared letters: am. Private to "mañas": . Private to "manco": cno.

"mañas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "manco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mancoamnco · macno · mancco · mannco · manoc · mmanco · mnaco

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mañas" and "manco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mañas" is a noun and "manco" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mañas" or "manco"?
"manco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,485 in our Spanish list, against #31,436 for "mañas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mañas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #81,208 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mañas" and "manco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "makes vs mañas". 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 #81,208 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