Macau

//ma.ˈkaw// noun

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#7,178

in Portuguese word usage

Misspellings

6

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

Macau is aPortuguesenoun. It means: região administrativa especial da China, administrada por Portugal até 1999, onde o português é uma das línguas oficiais Pronounced /ma.ˈkaw/. It ranks #7,178 in Portuguese word frequency. Often confused with mau and mata.

Key facts for Macau
PropertyValue
HeadwordMacau
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ma.ˈkaw/
Letters5
Frequency rank#7,178
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of Macau in Portuguese word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Portuguese entry for Macau is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ma.ˈkaw/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,178 in overall Portuguese word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for Macau, with forms such as "amcau", "maacu", and "maccau". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mau", "mata", "mapa", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct Portuguese form is Macau, spelled M-A-C-A-U, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    região administrativa especial da China, administrada por Portugal até 1999, onde o português é uma das línguas oficiais
  2. 2
    município brasileiro do estado do Rio Grande do Norte

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: amcau,maacu,maccau,macua,mcaau,mmacau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for Macau

Misspelling Variants of "Macau"

amcau5maacu5maccau6macua5mcaau5mmacau6
Misspelling Variants of "Macau"

Frequency rank: #7,178 in Portuguese

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Macau"?
"Macau" is spelled M-A-C-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is /ma.ˈkaw/.
What does "Macau" mean?
As a noun, "Macau" means: região administrativa especial da China, administrada por Portugal até 1999, onde o português é uma das línguas oficiais
What words are commonly confused with "Macau"?
"Macau" is commonly confused with "mau", "mata", "mapa". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "Macau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Macau" is /ma.ˈkaw/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Macau" come from?
"Macau" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby Portuguese words

Other entries that begin with the letter M in our Portuguese index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.