mãe
The verdict
“mãe” is in the everyday core of Portuguese, ranked #170 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a noun.
- #170
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
Dominant Wiktionary sense: mulher que tem ou teve filhos, naturais ou adotivos
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mãe |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɐ̃j̃/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #170 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mãe” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for mãe is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɐ̃j̃/. Corpus data places it at rank #170 in overall Portuguese word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for mãe in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable Portuguese patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "me", "my", "mi", 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 mãe, spelled M-Ã-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1mulher que tem ou teve filhos, naturais ou adotivos
- 2fêmea que gerou prole; genitora, progenitora
- 3a origem, causa
- 4protetora, pessoa que cuida de outrem
- 5líder de um terreiro
- 6tratamento afetuoso ou respeitoso que se dá aos idosos em alguns dialetos
- 7fundadora, mulher que iniciou algo
- 8pessoa bondosa, carinhosa
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #170 in Portuguese
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “mãe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is M-Ã-E — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɐ̃j̃/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “me” — see the side-by-side comparison. mãe vs me
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Nearby Portuguese words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our Portuguese index: