maníavsmataWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,151
“manía” frequency rank
#2,618
“mata” frequency rank
18769
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manía mata
Definition Entusiasmo excesivo, interés intenso o deseo irresistible. Planta de poca altura y tallo múltiple o ramificado.

Where the eye mixes manía and mata

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
manía
4 ch
mata

Why the eye confuses manía with mata

A purely visual mix-up. manía ([maˈnia]) and mata ([ˈmat̪a]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18769, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manía is recorded at frequency rank #16,151, classified as anoun, pronounced [maˈnia]. mata is at rank #2,618, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmat̪a].

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 18769, this pair ranks #266,545 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manía vs mata

Shared letters: am. Private to "manía": . Private to "mata": t.

"manía" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "mata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mataamta · maat · mmata · mtaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manía" and "mata" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([maˈnia] versus [ˈmat̪a]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "manía" or "mata" show up more?
"mata" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,618 in our Spanish list, against #16,151 for "manía". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "manía" and "mata" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mata" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,545 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manía" and "mata" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manía vs minga". 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 #266,545 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