maa vs Mai, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“maa” and “Mai” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,525
“maa” frequency rank: #9,369
“Mai” frequency rank: 57894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	maa	Mai
Definition	chão, solo	maio

Letter map: maa vs Mai

Shared letters muted; letters that set maa and Mai apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. maa and Mai follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch

maa

3 ch

Mai

Corpus notes: maa and Mai

maa and Mai are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “maa” becomes i in “Mai”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maa is recorded at frequency rank #48,525, classified as anoun. Mai is at rank #9,369, tagged as anoun, pronounced /maɪ̯/.

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 57894, this pair ranks #9,070 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maa vs Mai

Shared letters: am. Private to "maa": -. Private to "Mai": i.

"maa" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "Mai" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maa" for "Mai" ever safe?

No. They differ by a single letter - a in “maa” becomes i in “Mai”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Frequency check: "maa" vs "Mai" - which ranks higher?

"Mai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,369 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 "Mai" 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 "Mai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #9,070 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"maa" and "Mai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs malva". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #9,070 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.