maavsmahTell them apart

Quick tell: maa is a noun, mah is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maa” is a noun and “mah” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,525
“maa” frequency rank
#29,420
“mah” frequency rank
77945
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maa mah
Definition chão, solo usada para chamar ou deter alguém, ou para chamar sua atenção

Letter map: maa vs mah

Shared letters muted; letters that set maa and mah apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. maa (CVV) and mah (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
maa
3 ch
mah

Role in the sentence - maa and mah

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maa is anoun and mahanintj. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “maa” becomes h in “mah”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77945, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maa is recorded at frequency rank #48,525, classified as anoun. mah is at rank #29,420, tagged as anintj.

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 77945, this pair ranks #1,759 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maa vs mah

Shared letters: am. Private to "maa": -. Private to "mah": h.

"maa" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maa" for "mah" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maa" is a noun and "mah" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maa" or "mah"?
"mah" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,420 in our Portuguese list, against #48,525 for "maa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "maa" vs "mah" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mah" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,759 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maa" and "mah" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs malva". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,759 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list