maa vs mão, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#48,525
“maa” frequency rank: #451
“mão” frequency rank: 48976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	maa	mão
Definition	chão, solo	extremidade do membro anterior dos primatas, capaz de manipular objetos; parte do corpo semelhante ou análoga em outros animais

Letter map: maa vs mão

Shared letters muted; letters that set maa and mão apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. maa and mão 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

mão

Spelling & dictionary notes on maa vs mão

maa and mão 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maa is recorded at frequency rank #48,525, classified as anoun. mão is at rank #451, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mãw/.

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 48976, this pair ranks #16,121 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maa vs mão

Shared letters: m. Private to "maa": a. Private to "mão": oã.

"maa" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "mão" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maa" and "mão" be used interchangeably?

No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "maa" or "mão" show up more?

"mão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #451 in our Portuguese list, against #48,525 for "maa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "maa" and "mão". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "maa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "mão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #16,121 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"maa" and "mão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs malva". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #16,121 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.