mão
The verdict
“mão” is in the everyday core of Portuguese, ranked #451 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a noun.
- #451
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
Dominant Wiktionary sense: extremidade do membro anterior dos primatas, capaz de manipular objetos; parte do corpo semelhante ou análoga em outros animais
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mão |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mãw/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #451 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mão” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for mão is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mãw/. Corpus data places it at rank #451 in overall Portuguese word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for mão 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 mão, spelled M-Ã-O, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1extremidade do membro anterior dos primatas, capaz de manipular objetos; parte do corpo semelhante ou análoga em outros animais
- 2domínio, mando, autoridade
- 3lado, direção, sentido de trânsito
- 4demão, camada
- 5o jogador que joga primeiro
- 6uma rodada completa
- 7valor ou composição das cartas recebidas no jogo
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #451 in Portuguese
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “mão”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is M-Ã-O — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mãw/ (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. mão 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: