mazovsmemoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#15,157
“mazo” frequency rank
#19,175
“memo” frequency rank
34332
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mazo memo
Definition Martillo de gran tamaño y cabeza roma. Falto de inteligencia o entendimiento.

Where the eye mixes mazo and memo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mazo
4 ch
memo

Visual trap between mazo and memo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mazo is [ˈmaso] while memo is [ˈmemo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 34332, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mazo is recorded at frequency rank #15,157, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaso]. memo is at rank #19,175, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmemo].

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 34332, this pair ranks #192,035 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mazo vs memo

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mazo": az. Private to "memo": e.

"mazo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "memo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mazoamzo · maoz · mazzo · mmazo · mzao
  • memoemmo · memmo · meom · mmemo · mmeo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mazo" for "memo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mazo" is a noun and "memo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "mazo" or "memo" show up more?
"mazo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,157 in our Spanish list, against #19,175 for "memo". 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 "mazo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "memo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #192,035 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mazo" and "memo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mello vs memo". 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 #192,035 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