maa vs mat, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#48,525
“maa” frequency rank: #21,805
“mat” frequency rank: 70330
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	maa	mat
Definition	chão, solo	casamento

Letter map: maa vs mat

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

3 ch

maa

3 ch

mat

Corpus notes: maa and mat

maa and mat 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 t in “mat”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maa is recorded at frequency rank #48,525, classified as anoun. mat is at rank #21,805, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mat/.

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 70330, this pair ranks #3,657 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maa vs mat

Shared letters: am. Private to "maa": -. Private to "mat": t.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No. They differ by a single letter - a in “maa” becomes t in “mat”, 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 "mat" show up more?

"mat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,805 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.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "maa" and "mat".

Full dictionary entry for "maa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "mat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #3,657 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"maa" and "mat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs malva". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #3,657 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.